Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1940-1960 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
3 files or 0.01m3
Scope and content
Copies of the papers of Brig William Fraser, 1940-1960, relating to command of Stratforce, assembled to occupy western Norway, 1940, including: personal diary, 6 Apr 1940- 10 Jun 1940; memoir, 'Norwegian Adventure', including detailed descriptions of the formation of Stratforce, Jan 1940, the difficulty of taking occupied Narvik, April-May 1940, the problems of combined operations, poorly trained troops, lack of equipment, German air superiority and bad weather; the relationship between FM Sir (William) Edmund Ironside and Rt Hon Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill; the assumption of command by FM Sir Claude Auchinleck, May 1940; the withdrawal of the Scots Guards from the town of Mo, 18-22 May; assessment of reasons for failure in Norway; removal of Fraser from command due to shell wounds, 23 May 1940; accounts of German atrocities; the evacuation from Norway, Jun 1940; correspondence analysing the Norwegian operation, 1960.
System of arrangement
3 files as in Scope and Content.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born 1890; educated Charterhouse and Sandhurst; served with the Gordon Highlanders in India and Egypt; served in World War One; transferred to Grenadier Guards, 1927; military attaché, Brussels, Belgium and The Hague, Netherlands, 1931-1935; commander, 1 Battalion, Grenadier Guards, 1937-1938; military attaché, Paris, France, 1938-1939; retired, 1944; chief of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, Paris, 1945-1947; died 1964.
Repository
Custodial history
Presented to the Centre by the family, Aug 1985.
Conditions governing access
Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, via the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
This collection level description.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Note
Decorations: DSO, MC.
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Churchill, Sir Winston Leonard Spencer, 1874-1965, Knight, statesman (Subject)
- Ironside, William Edmund, 1880-1959, 1st Baron Ironside of Archangel and of Ironside, Field Marshal (Subject)
- Scots Guards (Subject)
- Stratforce (Subject)
- Auchinleck, Sir Claude John Eyre, 1884-1981, Knight, Field Marshal (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Compiled by Katharine Higgon.