Janet Fraser

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Janet Fraser
Spouse of the Prime Minister of New Zealand
In role
27 March 1940 – 7 March 1945
Preceded byEmma Serena Forbes
Succeeded byFlorence Beatrice Holland
Personal details
Born
Janet Munro

(1883-01-31)31 January 1883
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Died7 March 1945(1945-03-07) (aged 62)
Wellington, New Zealand
Spouses
Frederick Kemp
​
​
(m. 1903; div. 1919)​
​
(m. 1919)​
Children1 (with Frederick Kemp)
OccupationCommunity leader

Janet Fraser (née Munro, formerly Kemp; 31 January 1883 – 7 March 1945) was a New Zealand community leader and the wife of

Second World War. She was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, on 31 January 1883.[1]

Biography

Fraser grew up and was educated in Glasgow where she taught orphans and had been influenced by the writings of Robert Blatchford.[1] Janet sometimes used her maternal grandmother's surname, Henderson, as a middle name. She married Frederick George Kemp on 25 November 1903. She left for Auckland, New Zealand, in 1909 with her first husband, Frederick George Kemp and her son, Harold.[2]

In Wellington, she met Peter Fraser in 1911, who she worked with during the flu epidemic in 1918.[2] After her divorce from Kemp on 4 October 1919, she married Peter Fraser on 1 November 1919.[2] Fraser donated much of her time to child welfare and health issues in New Zealand spending 10 years on the Wellington Hospital Board.[1][3] She was awarded the King George V Silver Jubilee Medal in 1935.[4]

In the late 1930s, Fraser recommended efforts to help pregnant women have access to pain medication during childbirth.[5]

When her husband became Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1940, she traveled with him and acted as a "political adviser, researcher, gatekeeper and personal support system."[2]

During World War II, she was in charge of the official women's war effort and brought Polish refugee children to New Zealand.[2] In August 1943, she greeted Eleanor Roosevelt on her visit to New Zealand.[6] Janet Fraser died on 7 March 1945 in Wellington, and was buried at Karori Cemetery.[7]

Honours

In 2021, Janet Fraser and Peter Fraser, in recognition of their help for the Polish children were awarded by the President of Poland with Virtus et Fraternitas Medal.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Stace, Hilary. "Janet Fraser". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0748617132
    .
  3. ISBN 9780773589780
    . Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  4. ^ "Official jubilee medals". The Evening Post. Vol. CXIX, no. 105. 6 May 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  5. ISBN 9781107402171
    .
  6. ^ "Eleanor Roosevelt Visits New Zealand". NZ History. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Cemeteries search". Wellington City Council. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
  8. ^ "Janet, Peter Fraser - Instytut Pileckiego". instytutpileckiego.pl. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
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