Donald Hamilton Fraser was born in London in 1929. He studied at St Martin's School of Art, London from 1949 to 1952, and gained a French Government Scholarship to Paris in 1953 where he lived and worked for two years (1953-54). In 1957 he became Visiting Tutor at the Royal College of Art, London, where he remained until 1983.

Fraser has had numerous solo exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, the United States and Japan, his first being held in 1953 at Gimpel Fils, London. He continued to exhibit here throughout the fifties and sixties and at Paul Rosenberg, New York throughout the sixties and seventies. Among his other early one-man shows were exhibitions at Galerie Craven, Paris (1957) and at Gimpel-Hanover Gallery, Zurich (1967). Fraser showed extensively at the Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames between 1977 and 1994, and at Gallery 10, London and the CCA Gallery, London, from the eighties. Much of his recent work is commission-based for corporation collections throughout Europe. His work has also been included in many national and international group exhibitions.

Donald Hamilton Fraser was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 1970, Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 1983 and was elected Royal Academician in 1985 (ARA 1975). He was a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission from 1986 to 2000, Honorary Curator of the Royal Academy from 1992 to 2000 and a Trustee of the Royal Academy from 1994 to 2000. He is Vice-President of the Royal Overseas League and the Artists' General Benevolent Institution. Donald Hamilton Fraser lives and works in Henley-on-Thames.