FRASER, KEITH AIRD (1893-1952), railway engineer and commissioner, was born on 9 January 1893 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, eldest of four sons of native-born parents James Fraser (1861-1936), railway engineer, and his wife Maria Elizabeth, née Firth. James was born on 20 August 1861 at Braidwood. Educated at Sydney Grammar School, he joined the New South Wales Government Railways and Tramways in 1881 and rose to be engineer-in-chief for existing lines (1903-14), assistant-commissioner for railways (1914-16), chief railway commissioner (1917-29) and transport commissioner (1931-32). He was largely responsible for beginning the electrification of Sydney's suburban network and for the first stages of the city railway. James Fraser died at Pymble on 28 July 1936.

Keith attended Sydney Grammar School, joined the N.S.W.G.R. as a cadet draftsman in February 1911 and was a junior surveyor on the Waterfall-Otford deviation in 1914. He enlisted in the Australian ...

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Australian Dictionary of Biography