Hugh Fraser (diplomat)

Hugh Fraser (22 February 1837 – 4 June 1894) was a British diplomat.

Fraser headed the British Legation in Tokyo as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary. He headed the British delegation in the final stages of the negotiations which led to the signing on 16 July 1894 of the revised treaty (called the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation) between the United Kingdom and the Empire of Japan. This replaced the "unequal treaty" signed by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin in 1858 and led to the abolition of extraterritoriality in Japan in 1899. Thus was Japan freed from the commercial and political burdens imposed by the unequal treaties signed with foreign countries.

Fraser came from the Balnain (Inverness) branch of Clan Fraser, Scotland. He was born on 22 February 1837, and attended Eton College from 1849 to 1854.

Just out of Eton and not quite eighteen, Fraser was appointed, as an unpaid attaché at The Hague in January 1855, and was sent to Dresden the following month. He moved to Copenhagen in November 1857 and passed an examination in August 1859 to become a paid attaché. He was appointed to the British legation in Central America in September 1862 and subsequently served in , and Rome.

In 1874, he met and married Mary Crawford in Italy. As Mrs. Hugh Fraser, the author of several memoirs and numerous works of fiction, she eventually became better known than her husband.

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