Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Indian Mutiny 1857-59, no clasp (Asst. Surgn. A, H. Fraser H.Ms. 75th Regt.) toned, good very fine £400-£500

Archibald Henry Fraser was born on 18 May 1827 at Arisag, Invernesshire, third son of John Fraser, formerly an officer in the Glengarry Fencibles and factor for the Lovat estates in Morar, who was accidentally drowned in July 1834, while returning to Arisaig from the Island of Eigg. He was appointed Assistant Surgeon on 21 February 1851, and attached to the 92nd Highlanders, then stationed in Ireland. Two years later he joined the 75th Regiment and served with it until promoted to Staff Surgeon 2nd Class on 26 January 1858.

He was Assistant Surgeon at Murree Sanatorium and was present during the insurrection at Murree in September 1857 and accompanied the force which proceeded against the refractory villagers collected on Kohl-Dunnah Hill. The force then stationed at the Convalescent Depot composed of details from various regiments under the command of Captain G. Berry, 24th Foot.

This incident is further described in The Indian Mutiny by T. Rice Holmes:

‘It happened that Lady Lawrence was staying at the hill station of Murree. On the 1st of September one of her native servants warned the Assistant Commissioner to expect an attack that night. The information was perfectly true. The turbulent hill men of the district had been incited to make the attack by some Hindustani Mohammedans, who had worked successfully upon their religious passions and love of plunder. In the dead of night they came, expecting an easy victory, but, encountering a determined resistance from the police and a few Europeans who were living at the station, they stopped short, and, after a brief skirmish, fled. Many of them were pursued and taken.’

In 1859 he exchanged into the 88th Regiment, and in 1871 into the 40th Regiment. In 1877 he was selected for administrative duty as principal medical officer with the British troops in Burma, and was in the same year promoted Deputy Surgeon-General. After serving in various parts of India, during which his duties were often incessant and of the most arduous nature, he contracted malarial fever, and was transferred in 1881 to the Rawal Pindee Division. In the following year he was ordered to England, and on arrival was posted as principal medical officer at the Currugh Camp, from which, in 1883, he was transferred to Dublin to officiate as principal medical officer for Ireland. In October 1884 he was ordered to Gibraltar, was promoted Surgeon-General, and in May 1887 was placed on retired pay. ‘His only war decoration is the Indian Mutiny Medal.’ He was appointed Honorary Physician to the Queen in 1899, and to the King in 1901. Surgeon-General Fraser died at Slough, Berkshire, on 5 July 1903.