Thomas Fraser (18 February 1911 – 21 November 1988) was Scottish coal miner and trade unionist, who was a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for the Hamilton constituency between 1943 and 1967.

Life

He was the son of Thomas and Mary Fraser of

Kirkmuirhill Kirkmuirhill is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It borders Blackwood, near Lanark and is sited near Junction 9 of the M74 motorway. Its postal sector is ML11 9. History In 1810 John Begg, husband of Robert Burns youngest sister Isabe ...

, Lanarkshire. He was educated at Lesmahagow Higher Grade School until the age of 14 when he began work as miner, working underground until his entry to parliament. Fraser served as a branch official for his union from 1938 until 1943 and from 1939 until 1943 was secretary of the Lanark divisional Labour Party. He entered parliament at the 1943 Hamilton by-election, defeating an independent candidate by over 8,000 votes and polling 81.1% of the votes cast. Following the Labour Party's victory in the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgarian ...

he was appointed as Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland and held the post until his party lost power in 1951 general election. In opposition Fraser served as

Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland The Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland is a member of the UK Shadow Cabinet responsible for the scrutiny of the Secretary of State for Scotland and his/her department, the Scotland Office. The incumbent holder of the office is Ian Murray. ...

"for many years." Following Labour's victory in the 1964 general election he served as

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

from 16 October 1964 until 23 December 1965. In December 1965 he introduced the 70 mph (113 km/h) speed limit on motorways as an emergency measure following a series of multiple low speed crashes on motorways, mainly in fog. Throughout his tenure as Minister, he authorised the closure 1,071 mi of railway lines, following the recommendations from the ''

Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...

''. However, he went further and authorised the closure of lines, notably the

Oxford to Cambridge Line The Varsity Line (or the Oxford to Cambridge railway line) was the main railway route that once linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway. During World War II the line was ...

, that even Beeching had not considered closing. In May 1967 he resigned from

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...

to become chairman of the

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, w ...

. His resignation paved the way for a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

which resulted in a historic victory for the Scottish National Party's candidate

Winnie Ewing Winifred Margaret Ewing (' Woodburn; born 10 July 1929) is a Scottish politician, lawyer and figure within the independence movement who served as President of the Scottish National Party from 1987 to 2005. Ewing was a Member of the Scottish ...

. He was made a

Privy Counsellor The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of ei ...

in 1964. He later served on the

Wheatley Commission The Royal Commission on Local Government in Scotland, usually called the Wheatley Commission or the Wheatley Report (Cmnd. 4150), was published in September 1969 by the chairmanship of Lord Wheatley. Its recommendations led to a new system of reg ...

and was in part responsible for the resulting reforms in Scottish local government. He retired to Lesmahagow, where he had previously been employed as a miner, and died in

Law Hospital Law Hospital was a health facility in Law, South Lanarkshire. It was managed by NHS Lanarkshire. History The facility was designed by Cullen, Lochhead and Brown as one of seven Emergency Hospital Service facilities and opened in 1939. It accomm ...

in 1988 after a brief illness. When he died, one of his successors for the seat, George Robertson, noted there was still "immense respect" for him in Hamilton.

Family

Fraser married in 1935 Janet Scanlon of Lesmahagow. They had a son and a daughter.

Notes

External links

* 1911 births 1988 deaths Scottish Labour MPs Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Miners' Federation of Great Britain-sponsored MPs National Union of Mineworkers-sponsored MPs UK MPs 1935–1945 UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 Secretaries of State for Transport (UK) Ministers in the Attlee governments, 1945–1951 Ministers in the Wilson governments, 1964–1970 {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub