Lionel Fraser
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William Lionel Fraser CMG (1895 – 2 January 1965) was a British banker and self-made millionaire.


Early life

Lionel Fraser was born in London, the second of four children of Scotsman Harry Fraser and Alice Barnard. Harry Fraser was
butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
to Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of the Selfridges department store chain. Lionel Fraser attended St Mary Abbots higher grade church school in
Kensington, London Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Gar ...
, but he also attended other schools from time to time, as his parents moved around the UK for work. Aged thirteen, Fraser received a scholarship to attend Pitman's School, which was where he received intensive training in French, German, Spanish, as well as in shorthand, typing, and accounts.


Career

In June 1911 at the age of sixteen, Fraser joined Bonn & Co, a small bank specializing in foreign exchange transactions. There he was responsible for correspondence and bookkeeping. Fraser's business career was interrupted when his territorial regiment mobilized on the outbreak of war in 1914. Although commissioned as an officer in 1915, Fraser had to leave his regiment due to an injury suffered in a football match. During the remainder of the war Fraser worked in naval intelligence. By the time World War II started, Fraser had worked his way up to numerous business leadership roles on a national scale. During the war, he traded foreign currency while serving as an advisor to the UK Treasury. He became a director of Thomas Tilling, Tube Investments and
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, and chairman of the merchant bank Herbert Wagg. Other titles included Chelsea Borough Councillor, Trustee of the
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, Liveryman of the
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, and member of White's. In 1963, he published his memoirs, ''All to the Good''.


Personal life

In 1931, he married Cynthia Elizabeth Walter. They had two sons and a daughter. Both sons went to
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: the elder Nicholas Fraser, who went on to a very successful career in the City, and the younger, Robert Fraser. As an adult, Robert became known as "Groovy Bob" because he was so well-connected to the leading figures in
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in the 1960s. Their daughter, Janet, along with her fiancé, Richard Proby, was killed in a car accident on 14 March 1958. Fraser was a devout Christian Scientist. He died on 2 January 1965 of bronchial pneumonia and cancer at his home, 30 Charles Street, London. His memorial service was held on 19 January 1965 at the Church of St Botolph without Bishopsgate in the City of London.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Lionel 1895 births 1965 deaths Bankers from London British memoirists Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George British Christian Scientists British Army officers British Army personnel of World War I Deaths from cancer in England People associated with the Tate galleries Royal Navy personnel of World War I 20th-century memoirists 20th-century English businesspeople