Lt William Joceyln IAN Fraser, 2/4th Gloucestershire Regiment

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Date: 23 July 1916.

Connection: Letter from St Dunstan's; Whereas I was Blind, My Story of St Dunstan's.

Lieutenant Ian Fraser of the 2/4th Gloucestershire Regiment, was blinded by a German bullet on the Somme on the 23rd July 1916 when he was just 19-years-old. His journey to recovery began at St Dunstan's Hostel for blinded sailors and soldiers in Regent's Park, London and later, at the young age of 24, he became chairman of St Dunstan's, a position he held for the next 52 years.

The autobiographical 'Whereas I was blind', published in 1942, and 'My Story of St Dunstan's' published in 1961 are, in my opinion, two of the most inspirational books one can hope to read and I had already had copies of both for many years before I picked up the letter by Ian Fraser which he sent in 1944. When he signed his name on that letter, he had been blind for nearly thirty years, and he would die, as Lord Fraser of Lonsdale, in December 1974.

Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.




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