Aileen Fraser, social worker, dies at 91

Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Aileen Fraser, 91, who had a long and distinguished career in social welfare, died on April 30 shortly after being admitted to the University Hospital.

She was the widow of H. Aubrey Fraser, retired head of the Norman Manley Law School who was murdered at his home in Jack's Hill on November 29, 1988.

Mrs Fraser, nee Lynch, was born in Mandeville, Manchester, on December 9, 1918 and attended Wolmer's Girls' School in Kingston, graduating in 1935.

She began her first job with the West Indies Sugar Company in the Frome division in Westmoreland. In 1942, she left Jamaica for England, having joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), one of 100 women from the West Indies who served as part of the West India Regiment amid World War II. She served as a signaller in the Signal Intelligence Unit, an experience she often made light of in spite of its seriousness.

Mrs Fraser proudly related stories of being given the task of sending an ULTRA (secret) coded message while a superior officer stood behind her with a gun pointed at her head to ensure that the message was sent accurately using Morse code.

After the war, she graduated from the London School of Economics. In England, she met Aubrey Fraser in 1950 and, after a brief 'farewell' trip to Jamaica, she travelled to Guyana to be married in an early-morning ceremony. She then began to establish a long career in social welfare.

Government worker

While in Guyana, she worked for government social services and was an almoner - a distributor of alms - for the government hospital. In 1962, her family moved to Trinidad and Tobago where she worked for the newly formed Family Planning Association. She returned home to Jamaica in 1972 and worked with the Social Development Commission, the YWCA and the Radio Education Unit at the University of the West Indies.

Mrs Fraser is survived by sons Howard, Rowan and Stuart, daughter Allison, sister Alda McQueen, among other relatives. A daughter, Kirsten, predeceased her several years ago.

A memorial service will be held at the Providence Methodist Church at 132 Old Hope Road, St Andrew, at 2 p.m. on May 29.