Funeral service for Jim Fraser in the Jim Fraser collection MS2802 [sound recording]
- Bib ID:
- 729724
- Format:
- Audio
- Access Conditions:
- Access open for research, personal copies and public use.
- Description:
-
- 1970 Apr. 3
- 4 sound cassette (ca. 196 min.)
- Biography/History:
-
Jim R. Fraser, journalist and politician, Federal member for the Australian Capital Territory, 1951-1970. James Reay Fraser was born in Derby, Tasmania, in 1908 and completed schooling at Launceston High School. Initially he worked as a chainman and axeman for his father who was a surveyor. In the early 1930s he moved to Victoria and managed to get a job as a casual school teacher at a series of one-teacher schools throughout that state but by 1934 the increasing difficulties of the Depression forced him into itinerant work. By 1936 he began working as a journalist with the Glenn Innes Examiner until he enlisted in the Second AIF in Dec. 1941, serving as a gunner in New Guinea in 1942-43 and by 1944 transferred to the Public Relations Field Unit until his discharge in 1946 at the rank of sergeant. He moved to Canberra to join his brother Allan who was the Member for Eden-Monaro while he joined the Dept. of Information as a journalist and stayed there until 1948 when he was appointed as Press Secretary to Senator N.E. McKenna, Minister for Health and Social Services in the Chifley Government. When the Labor Party went into Opposition in 1949, he remained with the Senator as his private secretary. Meanwhile, because Canberra did not gain direct representation in the Federal Parliament until 1949, Allan Fraser had undertaken to act for the people of Canberra with the increasing assistance of his brother who was a member of the ACT Advisory Council and finally became the elected Federal Member for Canberra in 1951. He was very active on parliamentary committees and served as Vice-President of the Canberra District of the Australian Journalists Association and was active in this union for many years. However, he was right wing within the ALP. He married Helen Rowland in August, 1959 and they had one son, Andrew.
- Notes:
-
- This recording is a dubbing of an original broadcast from an unidentified radio station.
- Recorded on April 3, 1970 at St. Andrew's Church, Forrest, Canberra, A.C.T.
- Digital master available National Library of Australia
- Related Material:
- Associated material: Papers, 1946-1970, of James Reay Fraser are held by the National Library of Australia at MS 2802.
- Subject:
- Occupation:
- Federal politicians
- Other authors/contributors:
- St. Andrew's Church (Canberra, A.C.T.)
- Copyright:
-
In Copyright
Contact us for information about copying. For access conditions return to the record display above.
- Reason for copyright status:
- Until 2040 [Created/Published Date + 70 Years]
Copyright status was determined using the following information:
- Material type:
- Sound Recording
- Published status:
- Unpublished
- Creation date:
- 1970
Copyright status may not be correct if data in the record is incomplete or inaccurate. Other access conditions may also apply. For more information please see: Copyright in library collections.
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