Lewis James Fraser

Lewis was born in Singapore (part of the Straits Settlements)* in 1841, the eldest son of James Fraser, an East India Merchant. The family travelled regularly between Singapore and London and resided in Marylebone in 1851 and 1861. Lewis and his younger brother George John Fraser traded in Singapore and London in the firm of Maclean, Fraser and Co, where Lewis became the senior partner based in Singapore.

Lewis became a well-known and popular businessman in Singapore. However financial difficulties in the early 1880’s resulted in a high profile court case which brought his commercial downfall. He was sentenced to two years rigorous imprisonment. Sympathy within the local community resulted in a petition to the Governor to remit his punishment to simple imprisonment, but it is not known whether this was taken into consideration.

On his release in 1884, Lewis left Singapore for Pahang in Malaysia. Based in the small village of Tras, he developed a lucrative tin mining trading post, buying crude tin ore from Chinese and Malay miners and transporting it by mule to larger towns. He later moved his operations up to what became known as Bukit Fraser (Fraser’s Hill), where he had found rich tin deposits in the narrow gullies there. He remained in Malaysia until his retirement in 1900 when he returned to the UK. Fraser’s Hill still exists – after the tin ore was exhausted, it was developed as a hill station for convalescents and tourists and later as a golf course.

He married Marie Ellen Cheere, almost 20 years his junior in Kensington in 1901. She was the daughter of the Reverend Frederic and Marianne Cheere of Suffolk.

He died suddenly in 1906 whilst holidaying in Salzburg, Austria. At the time of his death he and Marie lived at 6 Broadwater Down, the home of his widowed sister Sophia Guthrie. Sophia had married an East India merchant, James Guthrie, who lived in Singapore before returning to England.