Dr Brian Fisher: GP from long line of practitioners in the Dales dies aged 91

Dr Brian Fisher, who has died at 91, was a GP from a long line of Dales practitioners and in the 1990s became the first chairman of the Craven Trust charity.

The Fisher family practice could be traced back to 1885, when it was staffed by Brian’s grandfather.

Brian himself could recall a time when the local GPs ran three hospitals in Skipton, assisting visiting consultants in the operating theatre when called upon – sometimes at the end of a 200-mile round trip making house calls.

The Fishers were descended from French Huguenot Protestants driven out of France by Louis XIV in the late 17th century.

Brian’s great great grandfather had been a doctor in Ireland but it was another two generations before the family arrived in the Dales.

His grandfather, one of 16 children, found his way to Skipton at a time when Ireland was training more doctors than it needed.

The Fishers put down roots and immersed themselves in the community life of the Dales. Brian’s grandfather married into the Dewhurst family, which had brought sewing cotton spinning to the area.

Brian attended Skipton High School for Girls, which despite its name also ran primary classes for boys, and gained his medical degree at Trinity College, Dublin.

Two years in a Preston hospital were followed by a spell as a ship’s doctor on the P&O lines to Australia and Japan before he returned home to Skipton – as he always knew he would – in 1964.

Today Skipton’s Fisher Medical Centre perpetuates the family name, though Brian’s retirement in 1995 preceded it.

A passionate advocate for traditional local practices, he deplored the trend towards online consultations.

He joined the Craven Trust at its inception and was later acting chairman of the Dales Recovery Appeal, which raised £1m for victims of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic.

He is survived by his wife Prue and by two sons, four grandchildren and his stepchildren and their families.