Peter Fisher was an internationally known homeopathic researcher and a staunch defender of its efficacy. As medical director of the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (formerly the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital), president of the Faculty of Homeopathy, editor of the journal Homeopathy, and homeopathic physician to Queen Elizabeth II for 16 years, his high profile leadership positions were combined with academic and research projects on this controversial area of healthcare.  

Peter Antony Goodwin Fisher was born in Rotterdam on 2 September 1950 to Antony Martin, a business executive, and Eve, a social worker. He attended Tonbridge School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, training at Westminster Hospital, London. According to several sources, he first experienced alternative medicine while on a study trip to China during his medical training: 

‘I was astonished to see a woman having surgery on her abdomen without an anaesthetic,’ he recalled. ‘To manage the pain, all she had was three little acupuncture needles in her left ear. This was something I hadn’t been taught in any Cambridge lecture.’^1,2 

At the time of his graduation, there were no official training positions in homeopathy, so Peter’s early career in the NHS included training roles in rheumatology and he became an honorary consultant rheumatologist at King’s College Hospital, while maintaining his interest in research and publishing studies on homeopathic medicine. In 1986 he became editor of the journal Homeopathy and a consultant physician at the then Royal Homoeopathic Hospital, London. From 1987 he was also chair of the Advisory Board on the Registration of Homeopathic Products. 

His career flourished at RHH, as medical director (1986) and later director of research from 1996, leading major research projects on various aspects of homeopathic, complementary and alternative medicine. He was a regular fixture on the international conference and lecture circuit and always ready to debate the efficacy of homeopathy in the media and elsewhere. 

In his spell as clinical director from 1998 to 2014, royalty came calling in 2001 when he was offered the role of physician to Queen Elizabeth II. The role was one of three such positions but the only one offering entirely homeopathic/complementary medical care for the whole Royal family. Royal interest in this area of healthcare is traditionally strong, beginning with Queen Victoria. As the Prince of Wales, King Charles III was patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy and had established the Foundation for Integrated Medicine, which closed in 2010. 

In 1997 Peter married Nina (née Oxenham) and they had two daughters Lily and Evie. They divorced in 2017. He listed his interests as sailing and gardening. Peter died in High Holborn, London, while cycling to work on 15 August 2018, after being struck by a lorry whose driver could not see him in her mirrors. 

RCP editor 

Sources/further reading 

1 https://www.karger.com/Article/Fulltext/494076 (Complementary Medicine Research journal) (Accessed 18 January 2023) 

2 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/08/16/peter-fisher-expert-alternative-medicine-physician-queen-obituary/ (Accessed 18 January 2023) 

3 https://homeopathyeurope.org/in-memoriam-dr-peter-fisher/ (Accessed 18 January 2023) 

4 https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/16460942.obituary---peter-fisher-doctor-queen-expert-homeopathy/ (Accessed 18 January 2023)