- Francis Richard Fraser
Sir Francis Richard Fraser (
February 14 ,1885 -October 2 ,1964 ) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, toSir Thomas Richard Fraser , the Professor of Materia Medica at theUniversity of Edinburgh and member of theRoyal Society , and Susanna Margaret Duncan. After attendingEdinburgh Academy andChrist's College atCambridge University , Fraser received his medical training from theUniversity of Edinburgh . He interned at the Royal Infirmary and theHospital for Sick Children , both in Edinburgh. By chance, due to an illness of his father's, Fraser was asked to host a dinner in honor ofAbraham Flexner . Flexner convinced Fraser to go to theRockefeller Institute for Medical Research in the United States for his postgraduate work.While in the United States, Fraser worked on
poliomyelitis andelectrocardiographs withRufus Cole ,Simon Flexner andAlfred E. Cohn at the Rockefeller. He then went on to work withW. T. Longcope atPresbyterian Hospital . WhenWorld War I broke out, Fraser joined up with theHarvard Unit and returned to England.In 1920 Fraser became Assistant Director of the Medical Unit at
Saint Bartholomew's Hospital in London. WhenArchibald Garrod left the position of Director later that year to go to Oxford, Fraser was appointed to it. He remained at St. Bart's until 1934 when he was asked to become the first Professor of Medicine at thePostgraduate Medical School atHammersmith Hospital . In 1939 Fraser was asked to join theEmergency Medical Services and soon was appointed Director General. For his work with the EMS and Hammersmith, Fraser was knighted in 1944.At the close of World War II Fraser resigned from Hammersmith to undertake the establishment of a
British Postgraduate Medical Federation as its first Director. The Federation loosely joined and established postgraduate medical schools and institutes in the London area. In 1960 Fraser retired from academic life.In 1919 Fraser married Mary Claudine Stirling Fraser, daughter of Colin Dunlop Donald and widow of Captain John Alexander Fraser, Francis Fraser's first cousin. Mary Claudine had two daughters from the previous marriage, Alexandra Mary Agnes and Margaret Stirling, and with Francis Fraser had one son, Peter Basil Fraser.
References
* [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/PDFS/Publications/Witness/wit7.pdf]
* [http://www.jem.org/content/vol19/issue3/index.shtml]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=14284364&dopt=Abstract]
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