James Fraser

Sir James David Fraser, 2nd Baronet, FRCS, FRCSEd (19 July 1924 – 8 January 1997) was a Scottish academic surgeon and a foundation professor at the medical school of Southampton, England, when it was established in 1969. He subsequently became Postgraduate Dean at the University of Edinburgh and served as President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh from 1982 to 1985. He went to school at Edinburgh Academy, where he was pipe-major in the school pipe band. From there he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, for medical pre-clinical studies. Here he gained a blue for golf and was captain of the golf team. He achieved this in spite of the residual disability from a childhood episode of osteomyelitis of the lower limb, which left him with a painful limp. He graduated BA in 1945. He graduated from Edinburgh with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) degree in July 1948.

Surgical career In 1951 he became registrar in the professional surgical unit of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary under Sir James Learmonth, who had succeeded his father as Regius Professor of Surgery. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1952 and three years later was appointed senior registrar in the urological unit at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. In 1958 to the surprise of friends and colleagues he resigned, opting to return to the Far East as surgeon to a district hospital in Sarawak, where he had sole responsibility for providing a surgical service to a large population in rural Borneo.

He returned to Edinburgh taking up the appointment of Postgraduate Dean of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh in 1980, a post which he held until his retiral in 1989. In 1964 he was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and in 1982 he was elected a member of the Aesculapian Club. From 1982 to 1985 he was President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. During his tenure of office he promoted the introduction of higher surgical training assessments throughout the British Isles. These had been introduced in Edinburgh largely through the efforts of Professor J I P James and Professor John Gillingham in the face of opposition from other surgical colleges and the surgical trainees. The influence of the specialist surgical associations allowed Fraser to introduce these reforms.

Death and legacy Fraser died in Winchester on 8 January 1997.

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