William Fraser was born in Inverness, Scotland, and originally joined the Army Service Corps but was transferred to the NZ Machine Gun Corps. In that Corps he was hospitalised with a gunshot wound to a leg after the disastrous failed attack on Bellevue Ridge in the Battle of Passchendaele on October 12, 1917.
He returned to the Corps the following March, in time to be part of the defence against the German spring offensive. The months following, the Corp experienced something new - advancing freely against a retreating enemy through open country. It was during that time, in an attack in the Selle River area of France, that William Fraser was killed in action. He lies in the Romeries Cemetery, France.
FOR THE EMPIRE'S CAUSE.
DEATHS.
FRASER. — On October 23, killed in action, William Patterson Fraser (8th Reinforcements), fourth, son of Elizabeth and the late T. C. Fraser, 12 Normanby street, Musselburgh; aged 26 years. -Otago Daily Times, 12/11/1918.
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