General Sir David William Fraser was educated at Eton and Christ Church college in the University of Oxford. He left school to enlist at earliest opportunity after the Second World War begun, and joined the Grenadier Guards in 1940, serving for much of the Second World War with the Guards Armoured Division, later in North West Europe, ending the war in the rank of Major. He was intimately involved afterwards in the crises in Suez, and Cyprus, and saw service in the Malaya emergency.
He was also a prolific author, publishing over 20 books mostly focused on the history of the Second World War.