Lord Fraser of Lonsdale C.H., C.B.E.  1897 – 1974

William Jocelyn Ian Fraser was born in 1897 in England.  His father William Percy Fraser was a brother of Donald and Douglas Fraser who started the business of Frasers Limited in Lesotho in 1877.

William Fraser played an important roll in the development of the city of Johannesburg.  He was a member of the Diggers Committee and was responsible, with a handful of others, for the establishment both of local government and of the gold law of the old Transvaal.

Ian Fraser was conceived in South Africa but born in England.  After his birth they came back to South Africa and in due course, Ian went to school at Park town Convent.  As tradition dictated in those days, he was sent to Marlborough College in England to complete his education.  This was in 1907 when he was ten years old and he remained there until he finished school.

The First World War started in 1914 when Ian was still at school but as soon as he passed out of school, he joined the army and went into training at Royal Military College at Sand Hurst.  In the spring of 1916, he was sent out to join the army in France and on 23 July 1916, a German bullet blinded him.  In due course, he was returned to England to the Officers Ward of the London General Hospital and it was here that he found out that he had lost both eyes when the bandages were finally removed.

While he was there a letter from Sir Arthur Pearson, the Chairman of St Dunstans, was delivered to him by Irene “Chips” Mace.  The letter told him how Sir Arthur had gone blind in middle life how he had made the best of it and found much to interest him.  How other young officers who had been blinded had found useful things to do and were happy and how he had established St Dunstans to train war-blinded men and invited him to go there.

He accepted the invitation and as he said, entered a new world.

In due course, he married the girl Irene (or Chips as he called her) who he said at the time wore the smoothest and most beautiful kid gloves that he had ever felt.  He said he fell in love at the first sound of her.  Her charm, her personality, her true sympathy.  He dedicated the book he wrote in 1961 to her saying that she had more influence over the affairs of St Dunstans that any other women possibly than any other person.  She “saw” for Ian in all matters, important or trivial and they lived very happily.

Sir Arthur encouraged Ian Fraser and in February 1917 wrote to his mother “I have had long talks with Ian lately, and have decided to train him to assist me in working for the benefit of the blind”.  Unfortunately in 1922, Sir Arthur died when he slipped and struck his head on the tap when getting into the bath.

Ian Fraser, at twenty-four, was chosen to succeed Pearson as Chairman of St Dunstans.  He was not an easy man to follow.  True, he had been working for Sir Neville for five years and besides running After-care had represented him at public meetings, deputised for him in dealing with Government Departments and gradually had become his second-in-command.

1922 was the beginning of the depression and one of the main tasks of after care was to help the men that had been trained at St Dunstans to remain fully employed.  At the same time there were still men coming in who had gone blind some time after the war.  Annexes were closed down and the permanent invalids were transferred to Brighton.  Fortunately, the national depression lifted slightly and in 1924 they actually achieved small surplus.

In 1924, Ian Fraser stood for parliament and just scraped home.

He continued with his work as Chairman of St Dunstans and built this into a place where the blinded service men and woman came to learn how to work.  The means that were available were improved and except for a few who were totally incapable as a result of their wounds, all the others were trained and taught to do something useful, and left St Dunstans able to carry out many functions and jobs.  Masseurs, farming, mat making, music playing, rug making, politics; shop keeping, weaving, and many other activities were available at St Dunstans.

The blind who until St Dunstans had started in 1915 had no special care were for the first time offered this training to carry out some activity.  Most of those who went to St Dunstans came away with the ability to do something as opposed to those who had been blinded before St Dunstans was opened.  In 1959, 5000-blinded servicemen had been to St Dunstans including men who had lost their sight in the post-war fighting in Malaya, Korea and Kenya.  Many men lost their sights years after the First World War as a result of the mustard gas used in the First World War.

In 1934, Ian Fraser received a knighthood and became Sir Ian Fraser, following on the tremendous effort that he had put into making St Dunstans into a training school and part club, and a worldwide enterprise without precedent.  He had also been in parliament from 1924 and remained there until he was appointed to head the BBC.

Sir Ian Fraser became chairperson of the BBC in 1936 when he resigned as a member of parliament as at that stage you were not accepted as a member of parliament if you were on the committee of the BBC.  However, in April 1940 Sir Ian Fraser was re-elected to the House of Commons when the Prime Minister introduced an act to parliament, which allowed certain people to be members of parliament and to hold office in the BBC in the public interest during the war.

Sir Ian Fraser also held many positions on the Boards of other companies.  None of these posts were given to him because he was blind, but because he beat blindness, by ruthless self-discipline, by exploiting a marvelous memory and by endless methodical work.

In July 1958, Sir Ian Fraser received a life peerage from the Queen and became Lord Fraser of Lonsdale.

He had been on the Advisory Council of the company Frasers Limited, which had been trading in Southern Africa, from 1936.  This advisory council consisted of members of the Frasers family, living in England, to whom the Board of Frasers had to report from time to time, this continued until 1966 when Frasers was quoted on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Lord Fraser was elected to the Board of Frasers Ltd in 1954 and after the sudden death of Chairman Douglas Fraser in 1956, he became Chairman.  He would spend two to three months every year in Fraser House in Wepener during which time many important visitors would come to visit him.  Among these were Sir John Ellerman and Lady Ellerman and Lord Montgomery from England.

Fraser House belonged to the Company and was the residence of the Chairman for many years.  First, it was used by the Frasers then by the Roches and then by the Andersons.  When the Andersons retired it became the South African residence of Lord and Lady Fraser, when they came out to South Africa for two or three months every year.  After his death in 1974, Fraser House was turned into an instruction college for employees of Frasers.  In 1987, after 110 years, the Company was sold to Tradegro Ltd but the college of the Company and ex Mayor of Wepener, to be used as a Museum.

However, the proposed museum never materialised and in due course Fraser House was sold by the municipality to the present owners who have turned it into the very comfortable and pleasant bed and breakfast accommodation that it is today.

When Lord Fraser became Chairman in 1956, he set about encouraging the modernisation of all aspects of the Company.  He seldom forced his opinions on the Board but it was gradually observed how often his suggestions which had been turned down by the Board in one year, would be re-introduced by someone else a year or two later.

His identification with the Company became even greater when he was asked to continue in office after his cousin Donald Fraser, was prevented by a heart attack from being able to succeed him to the chair.  Lord Fraser continued in the office for a further four years and it was only in 1971 that a new office was created for him, that of President, in which capacity he remained until his sudden death in December 1974.

Lord Radcliff-Maud said at the service of Thanksgiving held in Westminster Abbey on Tuesday 4 February 1975.  “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.  Therefore, indeed we would if we have eyes to lift.  However, the achievement of Ian Fraser’s life can be summed up like this; he lifted up the loss of his eyes, in bounden duty and service, day by day for nearly 60 years of his 77 years of life.  That living sacrifice was accepted and made creative of great good.  It has put new heart into tens of thousands of the sightless (and the sighted) that came within its influence, and nothing will stop the good work now.  It would never be the same as if Lord Fraser had not lived and learnt the mystery of the road of Suffering”