This role was based in St Andrews House on the south side of Calton Hill in Edinburgh.
[2] In the Second World War he relocated to London initially as Private Secretary to Sir Horace Hamilton in the Scottish Office then as Principal Private Secretary to both Lord Beaverbrook and Stafford Cripps in the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
In this capacity he was sent to the United States to persuade them to transfer contracts already made with France to Britain instead.
He was in charge of Beaverbrook's Spitfire Fund and helped set up an aeronautic training centre which later became Cranfield University.
Although many local hospitals were private benefactions specifically for local community use, the DHS managed to acquire almost all hospitals for the new National Health Service using the argument that all served the needs of community health (this decision complicated the future NHS sales of these "gifted properties" as most were held in trust by NHS rather than owned).
He was also responsible for reorganising mental health care in Scotland, widening its scope from the previous focus on Bangour Village Hospital.
He was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1961 for his services to Scottish Health.
The promised autonomy of the Scottish education system (guaranteed in the Act of Union 1707) was held not to apply in this capacity and the Labour push for comprehensive schools was rolled out.
Graham also oversaw the creation of weekday hostel accommodation for secondary school children from the Scottish islands who had to come to the mainland for education.