Donald Fraser was a consultant gynaecologist to St Bartholomew's. He was born in New Brunswick, Canada, on 9 June 1910, the son of Thomas Blake Fraser, a general practitioner who had qualified at McGill. His mother was Jenny Simon Green. He was educated at St John Grammar School and the University of New Brunswick, and won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford, where he gained first class honours in the final school of animal physiology, as well as a blue for athletics. He went to Bart's in 1933 and won the Brackenbury surgical scholarship. He was later appointed a consultant gynaecologist. He wrote extensively and was a co-author and editor of *Ten teachers* (London, Edward Arnold). He was vice-president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He married Betsy Henderson in 1939 and had one daughter, Ellen, and one son, Ian, who followed him into medicine. There were two grandchildren, Jonathan and Tori. He died in Townsville, Australia, on 2 June 1998.