RGS Senior Newspaper

Fraser Youens Boarding House Ridgeway High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP13 5LH +44 (0)1494 551405 boarding@rgshw.com www.rgshw.com CR No. 07492198 The most exceptional Head of House . Both of my sons respect and admire him hugely. RGS Parent The ‘VC’ The Victoria Cross was conceived during and after the Crimean War, the first major conflict to be reported by correspondents in the field of war. William Howard Russell, of The Times newspaper, reported on the courage of common soldiers, men whose actions often went unrecognised. The House of Commons decided, on 19th December 1854, that Queen Victoria should create a medal – “an order of merit for distinguished and prominent personal gallantry to which every grade and individual from the highest to the lowest may be admissible.” Prince Albert’s personal support convinced the Queen that this was the right thing to do and, when he won the battle for it to bear her own name, the Victoria Cross was born. The bronze for the Cross came from a captured Chinese-made cannon used by the Russians at Sebastopol, during the Crimean War. What is left of it today will fashion around 80 more medals only, but the Cross is so rarely bestowed, and so highly prized - with only 11 awarded since the end of the Second World War - that the bronze should last for many years to come. A very small number of VC holders are alive today. Only 3 men have ever been awarded more than one, and yet 3 have been awarded to fathers and to their sons. RGS is rightly proud of both its Victoria Cross holders, who are part of one of the world’s most exclusive fraternities. Ian Fraser died in 2008, at the grand age of 87, having lived a fascinating and successful life. The award of his VC, in July 1945, for an extraordinary act of gallantry at the close of the SecondWorldWar, is the culmination of wartime service characterised by dedication, courage and outstanding resourcefulness. Not a man to rest on his laurels, Ian Fraser utilised his wartime experiences and achievements to set up and resource his own highly successful companies, Universal Divers and North Sea Diving Services . The actor, Martin Delaney , played Ian Fraser in a TV programme, Victoria Cross Heroes , which was narrated in part by HRH Prince of Wales , and tells the story of Fraser’s attempt to sink The Takao . PROSPECTUS 2022-2023 P11 OurVCs Ian Fraser VC, DSC, RD and Bar, JP Born December 1920, Ealing Old Wycombiensian (OW) 1935 Active Service Second World War (between 1939 & 1945) Rank Lieutenant Died December 2008, aged 87 years Buried Landican, Merseyside Ian Fraser commanded HM’s Midget Submarine XE-3 in the successful attack on the Japanese heavy cruiser, Takao , in the Singapore Straits . The citation reads as follows: “The XE-3 deliberately left the believed ‘safe channel’ and entered mined waters…for 40 minutes, XE-3 pushed her way along the seabed until finally Lieutenant Fraser managed to force her right under the centre of the cruiser. Here he placed the limpet (mines) and dropped his main side charge. The courage and determination of Lieutenant Fraser are beyond all praise. Any man not possessed of his relentless determination to achieve his object in full, regardless of all consequences, would have dropped his side charge alongside the target instead of persisting until he had forced his submarine right under the cruiser.” BELOW: Japanese heavy cruiser, Takao Class BELOW: British midget submarine (XE-3) and ABOVE: to scale beneath its target The X Class was a midget submarine built for the Royal Navy between 1943 and 1944. Typically operated by a crew of four, and with little on-board living accommodation, they normally worked with ‘mother ships’, from which they were launched and then later recovered. Known individually as X-Craft, the vessels were designed to be towed to their intended area of operations by a full- size submarine. Length 15.5 metres (approx. 51 feet) Propulsion Single shaft 4-cylinder diesel engine: 42 hp at 1800 rpm Speed 6.5 knots Range 926 km (surfaced) 150 km (submerged) Test depth 91.5 metres (300 feet) Crew Commander, Pilot, Engineer and Specialist Diver Armaments 2 x 4,400 lb detachable Amatol charges (on time fuse) plus 6 x 20 lb limpet mines Production The XE-3 was built by Thomas Broadbent and Sons for the Royal Navy during 1944. It was an improved version of the original X Class and was scrapped in about 1945. 15.5 metres in length 192.5 metres in length