Early life and education

Fraser-Simson was born on 15 August 1872 in London, the second child and eldest son of an East Indies merchant, Arthur Theodore Simson and his wife, Jane Anne Catherine Fraser, of Reelig, Scotland. He was educated at Charterhouse School and Dulwich College, then at King's College London and in France. As a young man he joined a ship-owning firm in London before turning to music