William Fraser, 1st Baron Strathalmond

William Fraser, 1st Baron Strathalmond

William Milligan Fraser, 1st Baron Strathalmond (born November 3, 1888 - April 1, 1970 ) was a Scottish businessman and manager. Fraser served from 1941 to 1956 as chairman of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (since 1954 BP ).

Life and activity

Fraser was the second son of William Fraser, founder of the Pumpherston Oil Company, and his wife, Janet, nee. Hole. In 1909 he joined his father's company, where he was promoted to the post of director in 1913 and an associate mangaging director in 1915 .

In 1923 Fraser became a member of the board of directors of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, of which he became vice chairman in 1928. During the following decades he was particularly involved in expanding British oil production in Iran , Iraq and Kuwait . In 1941 he succeeded John Cadman as chairman of the supervisory board of the company now operating as the Anglo-Iranian Oil Corporation. He held this post, in which he was one of the most important functionaries in the international oil industry, for fifteen years, until 1956.

During World War II, Fraser was an advisor to the UK War Department on gasoline issues and chaired the official Oil Advisory Committee.

During Fraser's time as CEO of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and British Petroleum Company, some of the most dramatic events in the company's history occurred, such as the nationalization of the company's oil production capacities by the government of Iran in 1951 after ongoing disputes between the management AIC with this.

In 1939 Fraser was knighted and raised to the hereditary rank of nobility as Baron Strathalmond , of Pumpherston in the County of Midlothian in 1955 .

Fraser was buried in Putney Vale Cemetery, London.

family

Fraser was married to Mary Roberton McLintock (1892-1963), a daughter of Thomas McLintock, with whom he had a son, William Fraser Fraser (1916-1976) and a daughter, Mary Joan Fraser (1922-2004), since 1913. His son inherited him as 2nd Baron Strathalmond.

literature

• James Bamberg: "Fraser, William Milligan, first Baron Strathalmond (1888-1970)", in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography .
• MS Vassilou: The A to Z of the Petroleum Industry , p. 199.