Attributed period miniature medal group. CMG, OBE. T/Brigadier Colonel Hugh Vincent Fraser. Royal Armoured Corps.

Attributable Period miniature group of 9 mounted as worn

O.B.E. London Gazette 17 January 1946. The Official Recommendation states:

‘Lt.Col. Fraser has been GSO 1 Air at this Headquarters for the period under review. During this time has been largely instrumental in revising the whole air support organisation and for bringing it up to date. This has by no means an easy task, but it has been accomplished without any diminution of effort against the enemy.

Lt. Col. Fraser has shown great energy, foresight and a remarkable enthusiasm in carrying out his duties. These qualities have been noticeable even in the Headquarters of the 14th Army where nearly every staff officer has the same qualities to a marked degree. The excellent air support which the troops have received during the campaign has in no small measure been due to this Officers work.’

Hugh Vincent Fraser was born in September 1908, the son of William Neilson Fraser of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and was educated at Sherborne. Mobilised direct from his appointment in the Territorials in August 1939, he initially served as Adjutant to the Westminster Dragoons but in May 1942, on being appointed a Temporary Major in the Royal Armoured Corps, attended Royal Air Force Fighter Command Low Attack School.

He married Mabel Noreen O’Connor Tandy in October 1941 at the Royal Military Chapel in Camberley. Mabel was serving in the Voluntary Aid Detachment at the time. Their son, Clive Neilson Fraser, would become a Lieutenant-Colonel in the 2nd Goorkhas (Sirmoor Rifles).

In August 1944 he was appointed a G.S.O. 1 to (Air) H.Q., 14th Army in India, in which capacity he witnessed active service in Burma and was awarded the O.B.E. and mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 10 January 1946, refers). From November 1946-September 1947, he served as G.S.O. 1 at (Air) H.Q. Allied Land Forces, S.E. Asia.

Advanced to substantive rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on the General List direct from the Royal Tank Regiment in December 1953, he was appointed a Temporary Brigadier and Military Attaché at the Cairo Embassy, in the following year, in which capacity he was awarded the C.M.G.
Having then served in the Standing Group, N.A.T.O., 1957-60, Fraser was placed on the Retired List as a Colonel in June 1960. He died in February 1993.