Hugh Fraser

Colonel Hugh Fraser, CB (7 August 1808 – 12 August 1858) was a British military officer and administrator in India and Burma. Hugh Fraser was born in Inverness-shire on 7 August 1808, the second, but eldest surviving, son of Hugh Fraser of Jamaica and Stoneyfield House, Inverness-shire and his wife Elizabeth Dunbar, daughter of John Dunbar, minister of Knockando, Moray. He was educated at The Inverness Academy and at Addiscombe Military Seminary. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the Bengal Engineers, Honourable East India Company Army on 15 December 1826 and was promoted to Lieutenant on 28 September 1827. He arrived in India on 11 August 1828. For the following years he served with the Department of Public Works undertaking land and road surveys as well as building projects including the European Artillery Hospital at Mhow, 1837–38; the Allahabad Trunk Road, 1840; and the iron bridge at Lucknow, 1843–45. He was promoted to captain on 12 August 1840. Fraser was appointed Garrison Engineer of Fort William and Civil Architect of the Bengal Presidency in August 1847 and was promoted to major on 7 October 1851.