Ancestor Details
Ancestor's Name: Robert Donald Fraser
Ancestor's date of birth: 01/10/1873
Ancestor's date of death: 08/06/1907
Cause of Death: Pernicious Anemia
Service Number: 506
Colony or State of enlistment: NSW, Place of Enlistment: Tentifield NSW
Unit: 1st NSW Mounted Rifles, D Squadron
Rank attained in Boer War: CSGT, Date Effective: 1895
Highest Rank attained (if served after war): WO2, Date Effective: 1907
Murray Page: 67
Contingent: Second NSW Contingent
Ship: Southern Cross, Date of Sailing: 17/01/1900
Memorial details: Interred at the West Brompton Military Cemetery London UK
Awards/Decorations: Queen's South Afrca Medal with Driefontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Wittenbergen, Cape Colony and SA 1901 clasps.
Personal Characteristics: He was born at Inverell NSW. He was a serving member of the 1st NSWMR. In 1895 he sat for examinations and passed for entry to his old unit as Staff Colour Sgt.
Reasons to go and fight: As one of 10 children, including 7 sons he needed to find employment off the property so he joined the volunteer units prior to the Boer War.
Details of service in war: February 1900 - March 1901 in Free State, Transvaal, and western Cape Colony including charge at Diamond Hill (12 June 1900).
Service and life after the Boer War: In 1904 he was classified as Staff Sgt Instructor Class 3 on the permanent instructional Staff. He was selected to go to England in 1906 to undergo training at Chatharn and Aldershot. In 1907 he was classified as Staff Squadron Sgt Major, Class 3. After serving in the Boer War he probably acquired a Parasitic infection which led to his death from Pernicious Anemia in 1907 while training at Aldershot in Britain. A portrait, above, of Sgt Major Fraser (copy above) hangs in the boardroom of the Australian War Memorial Canberra,and was painted by well known Australian artist Tom Roberts. Sgt Major Fraser's portrait is one of a suite of full length portraits which Roberts painted on small wooden panels in the 1890's.
Descendant Details
Name of Descendant: Pearl Moffatt, Armidale NSW
Relationship to Ancestor: Great Niece
