Sir Ian Fraser

(Credit: NICK SINCLAIR)

Consultant surgeon Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, 1927-66, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, 1945-66 (b 1901; q Belfast 1923 (first class honours); MCh, FRCSI, FRCS; FRSE; DSO; OBE; KOStJ), d 11 May 1999. He was the undisputed and internationally recognised doyen of Ulster surgeons. He was driven by a strong sense of duty, love of surgery, pride in his profession and an unyielding determination to promote its standards, and strong personal ambition. These attributes, allied to an exceptional intellect, a prodigious memory that never left him, an infectious exuberance, and an iron constitution, ensured an enduring success. Fraser studied in London, Paris, and Vienna, wrote an MD thesis on diverticula of the intestine, was active in professional organisations, and developed the training of paramedical staff, especially through the St John Ambulance Brigade, where his ebullience as commissioner of the Ulster district increased the roll from 134 to 1944 members between 1932 and 1939.

He became a consultant at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children in 1927 and by the outbreak of the second world war had built up one of the leading surgical practices in Northern Ireland. Fraser volunteered in 1939 and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps, first in …