Tamara Margaret Fraser (nee Beggs), eldest daughter of Sandford R Beggs, was born in Adelaide on 28 February 1936. Known as Tamie, she attended and matriculated from Hermitage Girls Grammar School, Geelong in 1953. On 9 December 1956, at Willaura in south-west Victoria, she married John Malcolm Fraser whom she had met some months earlier at a woolshed dance. He had been a member of the Commonwealth Parliament for a year. They had four children (two sons and two daughters).
A woman of considerable social ease and charm, Tamie Fraser was less comfortable with 'life in the shadow of politics'. Nevertheless, within weeks of her marriage she found herself deputising for her husband at a naturalisation ceremony. One of her first overseas trips as a political wife was to accompany him to the United States in May 1964.
When Fraser became Prime Minister following the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November 1975, Tamie Fraser strongly supported her husband. Her role as Prime Minister's wife at that time was difficult. Nevertheless, she became particularly interested in the official residences, and in early 1976 developed the concept of furnishing them with items of historic and artistic significance. This resulted in the establishment of the Australiana Fund, which held its inaugural meeting at The Lodge in March 1978. Mrs Fraser was President of the Fund for the next five years.
Since her husband's retirement from federal politics in 1983, Tamie Fraser has not been prominent in public life, although in 1986 she collaborated with her sister in a book about her years in The Lodge. It was published under the title 'It Wasn't Meant to be Easy'. She was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in June 2004.
This person registration has been revised as part of the Prime Ministers Papers Project.
Sources
1. Ayres, Philip, Malcolm Fraser: a biography (Melbourne, Heinemann, 1987)
2. National Archives of Australia, J Malcolm Fraser Papers: CRS M1349, Folder of biographical details and press cuttings on personal issues, 1975-1982
3. Who's Who In Australia 2001, p 665
4. Canberra Times, 14 Jun 2004, p 12
Links to Other Persons
9 Dec 1956 - : CP 51, The Rt Hon John Malcolm FRASER PC, AC, CH
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Summary heading
Tamara Margaret Fraser (CP 308)
Unregistered links
Mar 1978 – c.Mar 1983: Australiana Fund - President