Orders, Decorations and Medals

Three: Lieutenant-Colonel I. Fraser, Royal Air Force, late Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and Royal Naval Air Service: having served in the Royal Naval Division and been attached to the armoured car section of the Royal Flying Corps in 1914, he qualified as an ‘airship pilot’ and was commended for good night patrol work

1914 Star (Lieut., R.N.V.R., Hawke Bttn. R.N.D.); British War and Victory Medals, M.I.D. oak leaf (Lt. Col., R.A.F.), mounted as worn, good very fine (3) £400-500

Ivor Fraser was born in January 1881 and was commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a Sub. Lieutenant in August 1914. Quickly advanced to Lieutenant, he served out in Antwerp with the Hawke Battalion, Royal Naval Division, latterly on attachment to the Royal Flying Corps’ armoured car section.

In September 1915, he transferred to the Royal Naval Air Service and was appointed a Flight Lieutenant at Barrow, his subsequent advancement to Flight Commander occurring on his departure for the Mediterranean in May 1916, where he served as C.O. of the airship stations at Kassandra and Mudros, latterly as a Squadron Commander.

Fraser returned to the U.K. in early 1917, where he commanded the R.N.A.S. establishment at Polegate until March 1918, when he was transferred to the H.Q. Staff at Calshot. The following endorsement appears on his service record:

‘The R.N. Airship Station at Polegate, under the command of Flight Commander Ivor Fraser, has, since turning over to the Portsmouth Group, carried out a very large number of patrols, this Airship Station apparently being considerably above any other in the Royal Naval Air Service in the number of patrols carried out, and mileage flown, during the period.’

Nor did Fraser leave such patrol work to his men alone, for having completed balloon training in early 1916, he notched up 25 hours in airships and was a qualified ‘airship pilot’. He was, moreover, specially commended for night patrol work in June 1918 (his service record confirms). Having been appointed a Lieutenant-Colonel in the newly established Royal Air Force, he ended the War at No. 10 Group, Warsash, and was mentioned in despatches for further coastal patrol work (London Gazette 1 January 1919 refers). He resigned his commission in April 1922.