Sir Ian Fraser, who has died aged 98, was a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and one of the leading medical experts of his generation. In 1941, he was chosen to lead the medical team which introduced the use of penicillin on military casualties in North Africa. Problems soon became apparent, and he realised that for penicillin to be effective it had to be used as soon as possible after the occurrence of the wound. So the surgical team moved closer to the frontline. Fraser later described how, at the 1943 landings in Sicily, working in a converted Irish Sea ferry, he operated continuously for 54 hours, with more than 150 casualties being received within a 24-hour period.
It was 76 years ago that Fraser graduated with first-class honours in medicine from Queen's University, Belfast. The son of a Belfast general practitioner, he was educated in the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and, having won many prizes as a Queen's undergraduate, he took his MA in surgery in 1927, qualified as a doctor in 1932, and became a fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England and in Ireland - in the latter obtaining first place in the examination.
After a short spell as residential surgical officer in St Helens, Lancashire, in 1926 he became honorary assistant surgeon in charge of outpatients at the Belfast hospital for sick children and a surgeon at the Royal Victoria hospital. At the outbreak of the second World War, Fraser enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving for two years in West Africa before leading the penicillin team. After Sicily he took part in Normandy landings, again working in an advanced surgical unit. After further service as a consulting surgeon in India, he left the army with the rank of brigadier, an OBE and a DSO.
Back in Belfast, Fraser saw the introduction of the NHS, and ultimately became senior surgeon in the Royal Victoria hospital and the Royal Belfast hospital for sick children. He received many honours, including his knighthood in 1963, sometime presidencies of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, the Ulster Medical Society, the Queen's University Association, and the British Medical Association. He was a visiting lecturer around the world, an external examiner in many universities, received honorary degrees from Oxford, Queen's and the New University of Ulster, and medals from Belgium, Holland and France.
Fraser's family links with Queen's began more than 100 years ago with his father's BA degree in 1885. From 1960 he himself served on the university senate, a post from which he retired in 1991; he was also chairman of convocation. As founding chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Authority, and a founder member of the Ulster Defence Regiment advisory council, he was, in 1976, twice the target of IRA bombs.
Friendly, gregarious, and with a great memory for people, Sir Ian was as at home discussing the blues with a patient from Sandy Row as he was discussing antiques with a patient from the Malone Road. He took a great interest in both students and staff and was an excellent teacher. His memoir, Blood, Sweat And Tears, was published in 1989.
Sir Ian's wife, Eleanor, died in 1992. He is survived by his daughter, Mary Alice, and his second son, Mark, a doctor.
Sir Ian James Fraser: born 1901; died 1999.