Lord Lovat was commissioned into the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and promoted lieutenant in 1890, but transferred as a lieutenant into the 1st Life Guards in 1894.[6] In 1897, he resigned from the Regular Army and joined a volunteer battalion of the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.
Boer War and Lovat Scouts
In late 1899, Fraser raised the Lovat Scouts for service in the Second Boer War in South Africa, and from February 1900 served as the scouts' second-in-command with the rank of captain, in charge of the mounted infantry.[7] For the Lovat Scouts, he chose the best marksmen he could find and the perfect commander in Andrew David Murray. The corps arrived in South Africa in early 1900, and was attached to the Black Watch, but was disbanded in July 1901 while two companies (the 113th and 114th) were formed for the Imperial Yeomanry. Lord Lovat continued as second-in-command of the two companies until Colonel Murray was killed in a night action with a Boer Commando on 19/20 September 1901, after which Fraser took command of the regiment himself (now aged 29), and remained in command until the end of the war.[8]
The war ended in June 1902, and Lord Lovat relinquished his commission with the Imperial Yeomanry and was granted the honorary rank of major in the army on 11 July 1902.[9] He returned to the United Kingdom with the corps on the SS Tintagel Castle the following month, arriving to a public welcome in Inverness in late August.[10] For his service in the war, he was mentioned in despatches (including the final despatch by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902),[11] was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1900, and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in October 1902.[12]
After the end of the Second Boer War, the remaining two companies returned to the United Kingdom and were disbanded. The unit was reformed the following year, consisting of two regiments, titled the 1st and 2nd Lovat Scouts. From these scouts a sharpshooter unit was formed and formally become the British Army's first sniper unit.
General Simon Fraser, the 14th Lord Lovat and 3rd Baron Lovat, receiving the Canadian journalists on their visit to No. 14 Company Canadian Forestry Corps at Conches Forest, 22 July 1918.
In February 1910, Lord Lovat was rumoured to be engaged to an American heiress, Edith Clark, a daughter of Charles S. Clark of New York and Grosvenor Square, London.[17] However, on 15 October 1910, Lovat married the Hon. Laura Lister (1892–1965), the second daughter of Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale and, his first wife, Charlotte Monkton Tennant (a daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet, MP for Peebles and Selkirk). Among the Fraser family estates was Beaufort Castle in Scotland (rebuilt by his father in the late 1870s) and 181,800 acres of land.[1] Together, they were the parents of five children, four of whom lived to maturity:[4]
Mary Diana Rose Fraser (1926–1940), who died at age 14.[4]
Lovat died of a heart attack in London in February 1933, aged 61,[1] and was succeeded by his eldest son Simon as the 15th Lord Lovat (known as the 17th Lord), who distinguished himself during the D-Day landings at Normandy in June 1944.[4]
Through his son Sir Hugh, he was a grandfather of six, including Rebecca Rose Fraser (b. 1957), Flora Fraser (b. 1958), Benjamin Hugh Fraser (b. 1961), Natasha Fraser (b. 1963), Damian Fraser (b. 1964), and Orlando Fraser (b. 1967).[4]
Kidd, Charles; Williamson, David (editors) (1990). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. New York: St Martin's Press. {{cite book}}: |first2= has generic name (help)
