![FRASER, C. QSA 3 Clasps to QLD IB (5th Reg.) [WM12-16] - Image 2](https://colonialcoins.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/WM12-16-Fraser-a-2.jpg)
Description
A nice Queen’s South Africa medal with three clasps to a Brisbane regiment, the interest further increased with the post WWI gold shooting award fob and the later WWII service, to which he would have been entitled campaign medals. Medal deeply toned, Extremely Fine, the fob as issued.
Queen’s South Africa Medal, type 3, clasps “CAPE COLONY”, “ORANGE FREE STATE”, & “TRANSVAAL”, impressed “499 PTE C. FRASER. QUEENSLAND I.B.”.
Gold (9ct, 7.78g) Rifle Shooting Award fob medallion, reverse engraved “PRES by F. CHORLEY TO IMBIL R CLUB FOR BEST 2 OUT OF 3 SHOOTS WON BY C. FRASER 10.4.20”.
Charles William Fraser, born in Brisbane on the 9th of March 1883, was the son of Mr John Fraser and Mrs Mary Fraser (nee Traill), and the younger brother of James Fraser (born 4th July 1880). With the onset of the Anglo-Boer War, both brothers attested for service overseas in South Africa, his older brother James enlisting first in Brisbane as Private 5 of the Queensland Fifth Imperial Bushmen, and Charles several weeks later as Private 499 of the same regiment.
The Queensland 5th Imperial Bushmen departed Brisbane in March of 1901, either on the 6th or 10th, with a strength of 23 officers, 506 others and 476 horses. They departed South Africa the following year on the 27th of March 1902 and arrived back to Brisbane on the 30th of April after a stop Albany and Melbourne. Both brothers, James and Charles, returned with the bulk of the regiment (per The Queenslander, Sat 26 Apr 1902, Pg. 894).
Following the Anglo-Boer War, Charles Fraser returned to civilian life and became a dairyman of the town of Imbil, south of Gympie, and met the Scottish-born Jessie Walker McVicar to whom he married on the 1st of January 1906, starting a family and having five children. He would maintain his marksmanship abilities and compete in the Imbil Rifle Club competition on the 10th April 1920, achieving a “best 2 out of 3 shots” and a gold fob medal for his win. It is likely that he competed in many other competitions of the club before its disbandment in 1933.
Although not participating in the First World War, Charles, now at the age of 59, attested for the Second A.I.F. for service during the Second World War with the Citizen’s Military Forces, enlisting at the Imbil enlistment centre on the 1st of May 1942 and posted to the 12th Battalion Volunteer Defence Corps as Private Q209379. He served mostly within Gympie and discharged on the 30th of May 1944.
Charles Fraser later passed away on the 9th of July 1960 at the age of 77 years old, predeceasing his wife by two years, and was buried at the Gympie Cemetery.
