Homeopathic mission of Queen’s doctor
Peter Fisher Homeopathic physician to Her Majesty BORN SEPTEMBER 2, 1950 - DIED AUGUST 15, 2018, AGED 67
IN a life dedicated to homeopathy, Peter Fisher defied many people’s belief that alternative medicine was nothing more than quackery when he was invited to become the physician to the Royal Household.
Upholding the strictest of confidences he maintained he had never treated the Queen for anything more than feeling “under the weather”.
Fisher studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge and while there he went on a field trip to China where his eyes were opened to the world of alternative medicine.
He was fascinated when he saw a “woman having surgery on her abdomen without an anaesthetic”, the only means employed to alleviate her pain was the insertion of three acupuncture needles.
He recalled: “The scales fell from my eyes” and he noted this practice was not something he had been taught as an undergraduate.
Returning to the UK, Fisher sought to learn more but it wasn’t until he suffered a mystery illness of his own that he became convinced of its effectiveness.
After being told by doctors that “nothing could be done” for him Fisher successfully administered his own homeopathic treatment.
He trained at Westminster Hospital Medical School and then joined the research department of St Bartholomew’s Hospital where he met like-minded individuals.
Along with a co-worker, Fisher published one of the first studies into the discipline in the British Medical Journal and after establishing himself as an expert in the field, edited the journal Homeopathy from 1986 onwards.
But in 2001 even his harshest critics couldn’t ignore the fact he had been invited to become a member of the Royal Medical Household. He served as homeopathic physician to the Queen for 17 years, providing complementary methods to conventional medical treatments.
He was director of research at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, where he worked for 35 years and was president of the Faculty of Homeopathy. He died in a cycling accident and is survived by his wife Nina, whom he married in 1997, and two daughters Lily and Evie.