Alistair Fraser

Alistair Fraser MC QC (March 15, 1885 – January 24, 1964) was the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia from 1952 to 1958.

Fraser was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.^[1] His father, Duncan Cameron Fraser, served as Nova Scotia's lieutenant-governor from 1906 to 1910 and had also been a Member of Parliament and a judge on the province's supreme court.^[2] He married Jane Ross, the daughter of James Hamilton Ross.

He graduated from Dalhousie Law School in 1908, was called to the bar in 1911, and was named King's Counsel in 1921.^[1] After his death, a fund was established by his estate to provide a scholarship in his name to the Dalhousie Faculty of Law. Fraser practiced law in both eastern and western Canada until the outbreak of World War I when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and was sent overseas. He received two field promotions and was awarded the Military Cross following the Battle of Vimy Ridge. During the war Fraser was appointed aide de camp to General Sir Arthur Currie, commander of the Canadian Corps.^[1]

After being demobilized in 1919, he joined the Canadian National Railway as a general solicitor. He was promoted to commission counsel in 1923, assistant general counsel in 1929 and then vice-president of the traffic department. He held that position until his retirement in 1951. He was appointed viceroy of Nova Scotia the following year.^[1]

As lieutenant governor, Fraser officiated over the opening of the Canso Causeway.^[3] In 1963, he was awarded $560,000 by the Supreme Court of Canada for 10,000,000 tons of granite taken from his property for use in the construction of the link between Cape Breton and the Nova Scotia mainland. Fraser sued after the federal government only offered him $5,500 in compensation.^[1]

Fraser's son, also named Alistair Fraser (1923–1997), served as executive assistant to federal cabinet minister Jack Pickersgill in the 1960s^[1] and then served as Clerk of the Canadian House of Commons from 1967 to 1979.^[2][4]

References

Lieutenant Governors of Nova Scotia
Post-Confederation (1867–present)	Williams Doyle Howe Archibald Richey McLelan Daly Jones D. Fraser McGregor MacKeen M. Grant Douglas Tory Stanfield Covert Irwin Mathers Kendall McCurdy A. Fraser Plow MacKeen Oland Gosse Shaffner Abraham Crouse Kinley Freeman Francis J. Grant
Lieutenant-Governors before Confederation (1786–1867)	Parr Bulkeley Wentworth Prévost (Croke) Sherbrooke Smyth Dalhousie Kempt Jeffrey Maitland Jeffrey C. Campbell Falkland Dickson Harvey Bazalgette Le Marchant Phipps Doyle MacDonnell Williams
Lieutenant-Governors of Cape Breton Island (1784–1820)	Desbarres Macarmick Mathews Ogilvie Murray Despard Nepean Swayne Ainslie
Governors before Confederation (1710–86)	Vetch Nicholson Caulfeild Vetch Caulfeild Philipps Doucett Armstrong Cosby Mascarene Cornwallis Hopson Lawrence Ellis Belcher Wilmot W. Campbell Green Francklin Legge Francklin Arbuthnot Hughes Hamond Parr
Lieutenant-Governors who served in the absence of Governors are listed in parentheses. Acting administrators are listed in italics.