Name: James Arthur Fraser
Life dates: 1855-c 1911
Gender: Male
Occupation: retailer

Biography:

James Arthur Fraser was the eldest son of Hugh Fraser and Jane Bunting. On Hugh Fraser's death in 1873, James Arthur, then eighteen, was immediately assumed as a partner to manage his father's business, Fraser & McLaren, alongside his father's partner, Alexander McLaren, and his father's trustees. In 1894, following a court case in which David and Matthew Fraser, the two youngest sons of Hugh Fraser, unsuccessfully contested the transfer of the company, renamed Fraser Sons & Co in 1875, to James Arthur and his brothers John and Hugh, the existing co-partnership was dissolved and the three brothers commenced in business as sole partners. In 1909, Fraser Sons & Co was registered as a private company and James Arthur, together with Hugh and John, were appointed directors.

James Arthur retired on grounds of ill health in February 1906. He died in about 1911.

Sources:

Moss, Michael and Turton, Alison, A Legend of Retailing: House of Fraser, London 1989