Alistair Fraser-Moodie (OK 1960)

Alistair Fraser-Moodie died on 21st May 2020 in Derbyshire.

Alistair and I had enjoyed our friendship for more than 60 years from our time together as boys at King’s College School. We were great friends in the 5th and 6th forms in particular. Our friendship helped to make school life fun and instructive. We lost touch for a few years however it was with great delight that we became reacquainted in recent years.

In 2018 Alistair published his memoirs, Medical Misadventures: 54 Years at the Cutting Edge of the NHS. As he said in his memoirs, Alistair could be described as being born into medicine. His mother was a general practitioner working from home, his father was a surgeon and dentist. Following in his parents’ footsteps he trained as a doctor at St Thomas’ Hospital. Here he enjoyed a full student life, especially focused on his sport. Alistair was Captain of the St Thomas’ golf team and the London Universities second team. He was a representative of the Ski Club of Great Britain, and in later years as a junior doctor was part of the British Medical Ski Team.

Alistair trained as a surgeon, gaining his FRCS both in London and Edinburgh. His speciality training was in plastic surgery and he was especially skilled at repairing facial injuries sustained from going through windscreens before seatbelts became law. This led him to spend a lot of time in casualty (or Accident and Emergency as it later became known) and his passion for this area of medicine grew. In 1978 he was appointed a single-handed casualty consultant in Derby, a position that is now shared between many more consultants, and was an early pioneer of emergency medicine. During his early years at Derby he developed the Flying Squad – forerunner to current paramedic services – attending many road traffic accidents over the years and helping countless lives. He remained as A&E consultant in Derby until 2007, when he switched to medical education for several more years. Alistair was also chairman of the Derby Scanner Appeal Charity, which raised funds to supply the first CT scanner at Derby hospital, and continued to raise funds for so much more. He thoroughly enjoyed his career, and did so much for the people of Derbyshire in this time.

Alistair was a kind and caring friend and colleague, a skilled and highly respected surgeon, and above all a great family man. He was always full of the joys of life and full of fun, and will be greatly missed by all. I shall sorely miss his mischievous and unfailingly cheerful friendship.

He is survived by his wife Christine, children James, Elspeth, Duncan, Isabel and Lindsay, and five grandchildren.

David Cohen, OK, Class of 1961