When Bruce Austin Fraser was born in Acton, London on February 5, 1888, his father was a retired British general and Royal Engineer veteran who had served in India and Burma. Fraser’s father had determined that the boys go into the army and the navy. Fraser's mother asked Lady Lytton, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, for advice about schools. She asked an Admiral named Fullerton at court, who referred her to the Admiralty, which recommended Bradfield College.

Like his older brother Cecil who joined the Army, Bruce was educated at Bradfield College from May 1900 to July 1902. Bruce went to the junior school and Cecil to the senior. Bruce was part of the Navy Class, founded like the Army Class, by Dr Gray in 1890 which was a short-lived, but highly successful institution. Boys entered it very young and spent 2 years before going on to HMS Britannia, RNC Dartmouth or RMC Sandhurst. Fraser remembered 'we were allowed to go out for walks together on Sundays, the one time brothers met'.  Fraser had started in 'Navy Class I' but after his first term was promoted to 'Navy Class II' where pupils were exempt from fagging. Bruce clearly enjoyed his time at Bradfield and did well. 'First Class' was how Lord Fraser recalled his schooldays at Bradfield, with particular respect for his headmaster's assessment of the boys. He finished fifth in the form (Gray's prediction) and began his naval career when he joined HMS Britannia on 15 September 1902.  

Fraser showed a talent for maths and completed his midshipman cruise aboard the battleship Hannibal of the Channel Fleet in early 1904 progressing to the destroyer Gypsy and by August 1910 he had been promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to the Home Fleet on the scout cruiser Boadicea.

Fraser arrived at HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy Gunnery School at Whale Island in Portsmouth in July 1911 for a long course to become a specialist. While the prevailing method of gunnery utilised fire control, with each gun employing its own director, Fraser was a proponent of director firing, with all guns under the control of a central director. Rather than lecture, which might have rankled senior officers present, Fraser chose to avoid a needless conflict. His prescience paid off and a year later, director firing had become the preferred doctrine. Fraser graduated at the top of his class and received the 1912 Commander Egerton Prize. Afterwards, he was posted to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, where he contributed to the development of the advanced gunnery course. By 1913, he had returned to HMS Excellent as an instructor. He was also the author of the earliest edition of the Royal Navy Director Firing Handbook.

His first posting as a gunnery officer was aboard the old cruiser Minerva where he served for 2 years. She provided support for the ill-fated landings at Gallipoli and convoy escort duties in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean during World War One. By March 1916, newly promoted Lieutenant-Commander Fraser was again posted to Excellent, moving to the new battleship Resolution by the end of 1916.

The immediate aftermath of World War One was a period of vigorous activity for Fraser, promoted to Commander in June 1919 and recipient of the Order of the British Empire the following month. He served as executive officer aboard HMS Resolution in the Black Sea dealing with the dissatisfactions of the crew as frustration developed among sailors anxious to return home. The French fleet in the region had mutinied and Greece and Turkey were fighting one another.

Foremost among British interest was the protection of access to Middle Eastern oil, particularly, during the civil war in Russia. Bolshevik and White Russian forces had been fighting for months and an apparent anti-Bolshevik coalition had come together in the Caucasus and along the border with Persia and the Caspian Sea. The Royal Navy maintained only a limited presence with a few small boats in the Caspian Sea, but the protection of the oil fields and refineries around Baku became a priority.

In 1920, Fraser led 29 volunteers to improve White defences around the Persian port of Enzeli, including a few old, rusty ships. Their train was ambushed and the men were forced to board a ship to Izmir, take another train to Baghdad and trek across Persia with an escort of Gurkha troops. Once at Enzeli, the sailors found the ships irreparable. They moved to Baku and soon the city was under Bolshevik attack. The British were captured, stripped, then marched to adjoining 16ft square cells in the Byrloft Chyrma prison, the infamous ‘Black Hole of Baku’.

They were fed meagrely, worked and compelled to witness the torture and execution of male and female prisoners. Such privations threatened to destroy discipline, but Fraser set an example, requiring a roll call in order to receive food and water. Lice, disease and maltreatment ravaged the prisoners.

The British government released no information about the sailors, who were presumed dead. Then a Georgian interpreter was released, and he had swallowed valuable proof: a locket containing a photograph of Fraser’s mother. The interpreter’s story helped facilitate the sailors’ release in November 1920. The 12 survivors owed their lives to Fraser’s fortitude and collected funds to purchase a ceremonial sword for him and he wore it proudly on formal occasions for many years.

Fraser’s steady rise through the naval ranks continued in the 1920s and 30s. In December 1924 he became Fleet Gunnery Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet and director of the Naval Ordinance Department in July 1933. After 3 years on land, Fraser returned to ships in 1936 to captain the aircraft carrier Glorious. He proved adroit at dealing with naval and RAF officers and fostered an unprecedented level of co-operation between the services. On Fraser’s carrier it was not uncommon to have RAF officers on the bridge and his naval officers in their aircraft.

By the spring of 1938, Fraser was promoted to Rear Admiral and became Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, then the future First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound. In spring 1939, as war clouds gathered, he was named a Companion of the Order of Bath and Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy, assuming a pivotal role in the fleet’s preparedness for war.  Fraser was responsible for the procurement of assets and the equipping of the fleet, including the decision to arm the King George V-class battleships with 14in guns, one of them being his future flagship Duke of York.

As his career progressed, the short, stocky Fraser acquired the nickname “Tubby”. He was outwardly reserved and known for brevity when speaking to groups, especially superiors. However, those who knew him appreciated a personality of good cheer and affability, friendly and persuasive.

Fraser was devoted to his mother and never married. He was engaging in personal relationships and a captivating conversationalist, skills that served him well in working with fellow officers, as well as the politicians he encountered. He was a hands-on man and a man of exacting standards. His diplomatic dexterity won many friends among Allied commanders, and he was a very popular British officer among his contemporaries in the US Navy. Even as his rank and stature increased, Fraser was never pretentious. He was a man of action and accomplishment rather than pomp and circumstance.

By June 1942, Fraser was appointed second in command of the Home Fleet under Admiral Sir John Tovey and within the year was commanding the Home Fleet and had been appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in the 1943 Birthday Honours. When intelligence reports indicated the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was preparing to sortie in December 1943, Fraser responded with a co-ordinated effort to eliminate the threat. Scharnhorst had already proven dangerous with the sinking of Glorious and the tally of merchantmen destroyed in company with her sister ship Gneisenau. Fraser on Duke of York set sail from Iceland late on December 23, 1943, hoping to lure the enemy towards the convoys, cut them off and sink the Scharnhorst in the Berent’s Sea. In doing so Fraser avenged the grievous loss of Glorious. In the aftermath he told his surrounding officers “Gentlemen, the battle against Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ships as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today.”

Fraser was raised to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in January 1944 and later made full Admiral. Throughout his career Fraser exhibited an intuition and attitude that brought results and forged goodwill. Prime Minister Winston Churchill was well known for run-ins with military subordinates and Fraser was no exception. Although they often disagreed, Fraser was patient and unruffled. During one argument, after he refused to divert naval guns to defend London amid the Blitz, Churchill quipped: “Fraser, you’re a mule, but you are right!” Winston appreciated steadfastness and Fraser became a favourite. When Pound fell ill in Autumn 1943, Fraser was Churchill’s choice to succeed as First Sea Lord. While any officer driven by ambition would have accepted, Fraser declined because he believed his lack of combat experience might inhibit his acceptance by the fleet. Instead, Fraser endorsed Admiral Andrew Cunningham, telling Churchill “I believe I have the confidence of my own fleet. Cunningham has that of the whole navy.”

In September 1945, when the Pacific War came to an end aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay it was Fraser who signed the instrument of surrender as the chief British representative. In September 1946, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Fraser of North Cape of Molesey in the county of Surrey. At this time, he reconnected with his school again becoming a Member of the Council at Bradfield College in 1946 and in July 1947, he is pictured inspecting the Combined Cadet Force at Bradfield College in the photo gallery below.. In February 1948 he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet and in September became First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff with a key role in the establishment of NATO.

After almost 50 years of service, Fraser retired in December 1951 at 63 years of age. Sir Bruce Fraser lived quietly for 30 more years passing away in a nursing home on February 12, 1981, aged 93. His funeral was held in the chapel at HMS Excellent and he is buried in Highgate Cemetery (East) in London.

[Research taken from the work of Michael E Haskew whose piece “The Two-Theatre Admiral” appeared in the ‘Britain at War’ magazine Issue 202. Michael is an Author and Editor of ‘World War II History Magazine’. Thank you to him for his agreement to use and paraphrase it here.]

A bust of First Sea Lord Bruce Fraser was gifted to Bradfield in January 1992 by TW Ferrers-Walker RN who also served on HMS Duke of York.