| The Lord Fraser of North Cape | |
|---|---|
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser on board HMS Duke of York at Guam. |
|
| Born | 5 February 1888 Acton, Middlesex |
| Died | 12 February 1981 (aged 93) London |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1904–1951 |
| Rank | Admiral of the Fleet |
| Commands held | Home Fleet Eastern Fleet British Pacific Fleet First Sea Lord |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Admiral of the Fleet Bruce Austin Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape GCB, KBE (5 February 1888 – 12 February 1981) was a senior British admiral during World War II.
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Fraser joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet on 15 January 1904. He rapidly marked himself out as a young man who had the potential to go far in the service and achieved first class passes in all his Sub-Lieutenant's exams, which he took between March 1907 and December 1908. He was promoted Sub-Lieutenant on 15 March 1907 and Lieutenant on 15 March 1908. His time in these ranks was mainly spent in the Channel and Mediterranean Fleets. He returned to the Home Fleet in August 1910 and remained there serving in HMS Boadicea until the end of July the following year. On 31 July 1911 Fraser joined HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's school of Gunnery at Whale Island in Portsmouth harbour where he commenced the 'long course' to qualify as a specialist Gunnery Lieutenant. Promotions to Lieutenant-Commander followed in March 1916, Commander in June 1919 and Captain in June 1926.
Fraser served in the cruiser HMS Minerva in the Dardanelles and East Indies and then in the battleship HMS Resolution during World War I.[1] After the war he was captured and imprisoned by Bolsheviks in Russia in 1919 but released in 1920.[1] He then served in the Naval Ordnance Department from 1922 before becoming a Fleet Gunnery Officer and then Head of the Tactical Section of the Naval Staff in 1927.[1] He was appointed to command the cruiser HMS Effingham in 1930 and then became Director of the Naval Ordnance Department in 1933.[1]
He returned to sea in command of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in 1936 and then became Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers in 1936.[1] He reached Flag rank as a Rear Admiral in January 1938 and was made Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet in 1939.[1] In May 1940 he was promoted Vice Admiral.
At the outset of the War Fraser was appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy.[1] In 1942 as a Vice Admiral he was made Second-in-Command, Home Fleet and Flag Officer, 2nd Battle Squadron.[1] Fraser was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet with the acting rank of Admiral in May 1943, a rank that was confirmed in February 1944.
During that period he commanded the Royal Navy force that destroyed the Scharnhorst at the Battle of North Cape on December 26, 1943.[1] Units of the Home Fleet regularly escorted convoys to Murmansk in the Soviet Union. Fraser was convinced that Scharnhorst would attempt an attack on Convoy JW 55B, and put to sea in his flagship HMS Duke of York to reach a position between the convoy and the German battleship's base in North Norway.[2] During the afternoon before the battle Fraser was described by one of his officers: "He wore no naval uniform as such, he just wore old trousers and a polo neck shirt and sweater and a rather battered admiral's hat, with his pipe belching sparks and flame. He moved among us all . . it was a real triumph of a single personality dominating a ship's company". Thus Fraser avenged the destruction by Scharnhorst in 1940 of his old command, HMS Glorious.
Following his command of the Home Fleet, he went east in the summer of 1944 to take command firstly of the Eastern Fleet in 1944 and then of the powerful British Pacific Fleet later that year.[1] Unlike his time in command of the Home Fleet this was not a seagoing command. He commanded from ashore in Australia. The BPF took part in the assault on Okinawa and the final strikes on the Japanese home islands.
Fraser was the British signatory to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.[1]
In 1946 Fraser was raised to the peerage as Baron Fraser of North Cape, of Molesey in the County of Surrey.[3] Following the war he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1947 and then First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in 1948.[1] He retired in 1951 with the rank of Admiral of the Fleet. Lord Fraser of North Cape died in February 1981, aged 93, when the barony became extinct.
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Reginald Henderson |
Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy 1939–1942 |
Succeeded by Sir Frederic Wake-Walker |
| Preceded by Sir John Tovey |
Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet 1942–1944 |
Succeeded by Sir Henry Moore |
| Preceded by Sir James Somerville |
Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet 1944 |
Succeeded by Sir Arthur Power |
| Preceded by Sir Geoffrey Layton |
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth 1947–1948 |
Succeeded by Sir Algernon Willis |
| Preceded by Sir John Cunningham |
First Sea Lord 1948–1951 |
Succeeded by Sir Rhoderick McGrigor |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by The Lord Tovey |
First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp 1946–1948 |
Succeeded by Sir Henry Moore |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Baron Fraser of North Cape 1946–1981 |
Extinct |