W.G. Fraser

On the Kincardine O’Neil memorial this soldier’s initials are W. G. but on the Torphins memorial D. R. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have no record of a New Zealand casualty with the initials W. G. and no one on their list of W. G. Frasers looks on the face of it to have any connection with Kincardine O’Neil, though these records are by no means the final word on the matter.

Duncan Reid Fraser

New Zealand Training Unit, Trentham Regiment, 2nd Battalion

Died 21st July 1915

There is however a New Zealand entry for Duncan Reid Fraser, matching the Torphins initials, who was a son of James Fraser of Gallowcairn, Torphins, born 26 January 1892. He emigrated to New Zealand and settled in Auckland. In the spring of 1915, he embarked on military training, giving his occupation as “Farm Labourer”. This must have been voluntary as conscription was not introduced until the following year. He was certified fit in April, and assigned on 28 May 1915 as Rifleman (no. 24/145) to the New Zealand Training Unit, Trentham Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company “A”. 

Private Fraser took ill, and was admitted to hospital in Wellington on 22 June 1915. He died there, a month later on 21 July, of cerebro-spinal meningitis. His body was moved to Auckland for burial, as his sister was there. He is buried in the Fraser Road Public Cemetery, Pokeno. Aucklandmuseum.com’s online Cenotaph has a tinted portrait of him pre-war, a photograph of his funeral procession, and of his gravestone “Erected by his Comrades”.

Fraser’s father remained at Gallowcairn until after the war, though he was at Broombrae when he acknowledged receipt of a memorial plaque and scroll (possibly in the early 1920s – the papers are undated). The family had a strong connection with the locality, as revealed by an article in the Aberdeen Press & Journal on 7 June 1919 celebrating Fraser’s centenarian granny Mrs George Fraser, under the heading “An Echt Centenarian”. Mrs Fraser’s husband had farmed at Upper Fittie and, despite her very advanced age, it was noted that she had made her own contribution to the war effort: “She has always been a great knitter and regularly wove [yes, wove] socks for the soldiers”.

Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Register of Births
Archives New Zealand – Military Personnel File 24/145
http://www.auklandmuseum.com
Aberdeen Press & Journal 7 June 1919
[No definite ID in passenger lists]