British Army General. A highly respected Vice Chief-of-Staff, he was later a noted military author. The child of a distinguished Army family he was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, joined the Army at the outbreak of World War II, then after brief service in the Home Defence Force was trained at Chaterham and Sandhurst and commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in April of 1941. Fraser was to serve mainly in Western Europe and was to hold the rank of major at the end of the conflict; following a tour as a company commander during the Malayan Emergency of 1948 he attended the War College then had the first of his several postings to the War Office. For the remainder of his time in uniform he was to have a series of both staff and field assignments of increasing responsibility and was to be appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services in British Cameroon during the early 1960s. Appointed Commanding General of the 4th. Division in 1969 he became Assistant Chief of Staff (Policy) in 1971, then served as Vice Chief of Staff, was Knighted KCB in 1973, and after a posting as the UK Representative to NATO had his final assignment as Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies. Advanced to Knight Grand Cross (GCB) upon his 1980 retirement Sir David began a second career that saw him publish more than 20 books, among them several novels including "The Dragon's Teeth" (1987), the 1988 "A Candle for Judas", and 1993's "The Pain of Winning". Also in 1993 he released the much-praised "Knight's Cross: A Life of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel" then in 2000 followed with a well received biography of Frederick the Great. Sir David lived his final years in Hampshire where he was active in local government.