J J Fraser
Last Updated on Wednesday, 07 September 2011 11:47 Written by Bryn Jones Sunday, 10 April 2011 08:30
Dr John Joyner Fraser was the first club captain in 1890 and 1891. He qualified as a doctor in Edinburgh in 1878. He was born in Scotland in about 1851.
He married Edith Hodgson (born in Beverley in about 1861) in 1886. In the 1891 and 1901 census returns Edith and John are shown as living in Hessle where he practiced as a doctor of medicine. Edith was a daughter of Richard and Maria Hodgson who lived in Westwood Hall on Westwood Road, Beverley, the house he built in about 1854. Richard was the owner of Hodgson's tannery in Flemingate and was the son of the William Hodgson who started the tannery in 1812. In 1881 the tannery employed about 300 people. The circular area on the Westwood that is known as "the gallop" that intersects the golf course on the 1st and 3rd holes and is also adjacent to the 1st and 5th fairways, is also referred to as the "tan" since leather off-cuts from the tannery were spread along the gallop to provide a nice surface for the horses to train on. Now it's just grassed.