Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape

Admiral Fraser, 1943

Bruce Austin Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape GCB , KBE (born February 5, 1888 in Acton , Middlesex, † February 12, 1981 in London ) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy , most recently Admiral of the Fleet , and from 1948 until 1951 first sea lord .

Life

Early years

Fraser was born the younger of two sons of the retired general of the pioneer troop Alexander Fraser (1824-1898) and his second wife Monica Stores Fraser (nee Smith). After an education at Bradfield College , Berkshire, he joined the naval service in 1902 as a cadet on the training ship HMS Britannia . In 1904 he became a Midshipman on the battleship HMS Hannibal the Channel Fleet appointed the following year he came to the HMS Prince George . After he had served briefly on the HMS Goliath , he was promoted to acting sub-lieutenant in March 1907 and a little later transferred to the HMS Triumph . After serving on the destroyer HMS Gipsy , he was promoted to lieutenant ( Kapitänleutnant ) in March 1908 and as such came a little later to the armored cruiser HMS Lancaster of the Mediterranean fleet , where he served until 1910. Last year he joined the flagship of the Home Fleet's destroyer flotilla , HMS Boadicea in Harwich . In 1911 he completed the artillery course on HMS Excellent , which he completed as the best of his class, and was then recommended for the advanced artillery course in Greenwich . In 1913 he was accepted into the training staff of HMS Excellent , where he wrote a handbook on fire control, which in July 1914 earned him a note of thanks from the Admiralty . He was then transferred as Gunnery Lieutenant ( fire control officer ) to the cruiser HMS Minerva mobilized from the reserve .

First World War

With this ship Fraser was at the beginning of the First World War on the west coast of Ireland in use before it moved to the Mediterranean Fleet in September 1914. In late 1914 / early 1915, Fraser took part in the bombardment of Akaba on the Red Sea, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, and took part in land missions by the marine infantry. Later, the Minerva was used against the first Suez offensive of the Turks before she was assigned to the task force for the Dardanelles expedition. Fraser took part in the latter until August 1915 and directed the frequent coastal bombardments on Turkish positions in the straits. The remainder of 1915 he was involved with his ship in the fight against the Senussi Brotherhood on Egypt's western border. He returned early in 1916 on HMS Excellent and became in the same year for the property under construction Dreadnought -Schlachtschiff HMS Resolution added, which was made in December 1916 in service. He spent the rest of the war mostly in the British naval port of Scapa Flow . The OBE was one of his awards .

Interwar period

In June 1919 Fraser was promoted to Commander ( frigate captain ) and was originally supposed to serve on the Resolution in the Mediterranean, but volunteered for the British Caspian Flotilla , which intervened in the Russian Civil War from Enseli on the Persian Caspian coast . He was captured by the Reds in Baku in April 1920 and spent half a year in their captivity.

Fraser then returned to HMS Ecellent before being appointed to the Admiralty's Naval Ordnance Department in 1922 . In 1925 he was appointed Fleet Gunnery Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet , where he was stationed on the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Warspite . In the summer of 1926 he was promoted to captain ( sea ​​captain ) and then came to the Tactical Division of the Admiralty. From 1929 to 1932 he commanded the cruiser HMS Effingham on the East Indies Station and briefly the HMS Leander . From 1933 to 1935 he served as Director of Naval Ordnance in the Admiralty. In 1936 he received command of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in the Mediterranean Fleet, which he held for a year. In January 1938, Fraser was appointed Rear Admiral promoted and received a new position as chief of staff of the Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound .

In March 1939, Fraser returned to the Admiralty, where he assumed the post of Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy . In this position he also experienced the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939.

Second World War

Fraser was responsible for ship design and construction in the early stages of World War II. He introduced a new type of escort ship, for which the designation corvette was revived. He also advocated the conversion of fast merchant ships to escort aircraft carriers and the use of catapult ships against the bomber threat. Another field of activity was the development of electronic countermeasures against the submarine danger. Fraser was promoted to Vice Admiral in May 1940 . A year later, in June 1941, he received the KCB .

In June 1942, Fraser was appointed Deputy Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet under Admiral John Tovey and led from board the flagships HMS Anson (battleship) and HMS Victorious (fleet carrier). In August 1942 he accompanied one of the Malta convoys as an observer on board the HMS Rodney . In May 1943 he succeeded Tovey as Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet. Just a few months later, in October, Prime Minister Winston Churchill offered him the post of First Sea Lord to succeed the late Dudley Pound. But he turned down the offer with the words:

“I believe I have the confidence of my own fleet. Cunningham has that of the whole Navy. "

“I think I have the confidence of my own fleet. Cunningham has that of the entire Navy. "

Fraser was involved with his fleet in securing the Atlantic and Northern Sea convoys . In one of the latter, JW 55B , he succeeded in sinking the German battleship Scharnhorst in a naval battle off the North Cape in December 1943 . In February 1944 he was promoted to full admiral . In June 1944 he gave his post to Henry Moore to take command of the Eastern Fleet , which was used against the Japanese in the Pacific War.

Fraser (front left) at the Japanese surrender in Hong Kong in September 1945

His first flagship in the new post was the battle cruiser HMS Renown . Fraser endeavored to work harmoniously with the Allied Commander in Chief in the South East Asia Command , Louis Mountbatten , which was also recognized by the latter. In December 1944, his fleet was split up and he himself took over the British Pacific Fleet , which consisted of the strongest units and was additionally reinforced by relocations from the European theater of war. The American admirals, whose fleets had previously borne the brunt of the fighting in the Pacific, were not very pleased with this "competition", but had to bow to President Roosevelt's political decision . Fraser was headquartered in Sydney , Australia, where he mostly stayed. During an inspection trip into the waters of the Philippines, he narrowly escaped death in January 1945 when a Japanese kamikaze machine hit the bridge of the USS New Mexico and killed 30 people there.

When Japan surrendered in August 1945, Fraser was present with his flagship, the HMS Duke of York in the Seto Inland Sea , and signed the document of surrender for Great Britain on board the USS Missouri .

post war period

Fraser returned to his homeland in 1946 and was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp for King George VI in April . appointed. In September 1946, he was raised to the hereditary nobility as Baron Fraser of North Cape, of Molesey in the County of Surrey . From September 1947 Fraser was Commander-in-Chief in Portsmouth for a year before he succeeded John Cunningham as First Sea Lord. As such, he served under the Clement Attlees Labor government under Secretary of the Navy George Hall, 1st Viscount Hall .

Memorial bust in Portsmouth Dockyard

Fraser, who had been promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in February 1948 , advocated close cooperation with the United States in the beginning of the Cold War and was extremely involved in the creation of the alliance structures of NATO (including SACLANT ). He drew the displeasure of Winston Churchill, among others, about his consent to leave the post of SACLANT in principle to an American. During Fraser's tenure, the Royal Navy battleship fleet was almost completely decommissioned. After the end of his three-year tenure, Fraser retired in April 1952. In the House of Lords , he made various contributions to naval issues.

Fraser died unmarried in 1981 at the age of 93. His title of nobility expired.

literature

• TA Heathcote: British Admirals of the Fleet: 1734-1995. A Biographical Dictionary. Leo Cooper, 2002, pp. 88-91.
• Richard Humble: Fraser of North Cape: The Life of Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fraser, 1888-1981. Routledge & K. Paul, 1983.

Web links

Commons : Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ quoted from Heathcote, p. 89.

predecessor	Office	successor
Sir John Tovey	Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet 1942–1944	Sir Henry Moore
Sir James Somerville	Commander in Chief of the Eastern Fleet 1944	Sir Arthur Power ( East Indies Fleet )
Item newly created	Commander in Chief of the British Pacific Fleet 1944–1946	Sir Denis Boyd
Lord Tovey	First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp 1946–1948	Sir Henry Moore
Sir Geoffrey Layton	Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth 1947-1948	Sir Algernon Willis
Sir John Cunningham	First sea lord 1948–1951	Sir Rhoderick McGrigor
New title created	Baron Fraser of North Cape 1946-1981	Title expired