Obituary: Peter Draper
Peter Draper has died, at the age of 83.
A regular contributor to the DFNHS newsletter and a founding light in the organisation, Peter’s contribution to public health and to campaigns defending the principles upon which the NHS was founded would be hard to under-state. His obituary in the Guardian [1] sums this up:
“He was instrumental in creating the study of health policy in the UK and was the country’s outstanding public health practitioner in the second half of the 20th century.”

Several DFNHS members have commented on how the early meetings of the then NHS Consultants’ Association were hosted at Peter’s rooms at Guy’s, London. Tributes to Peter have also included the following:
“In my view he was unquestionably the most important figure in UK public health in the second half of the 20th century. He single-handedly invented health policy and healthy public policy within the UK, and produced a superb series of reports from his Unit for the Study of Health Policy at Guy’s Hospital Medical School.
“Many of us enthusiastically moulded our approach to public health around Peter’s example. A great public health physician.” – Alex Scott-Samuel
“Peter had a nice turn of phrase. In comparing 19th Century and more modern public health threats, he described tobacco and various other forms of advertising as ‘pollution of the thinking water’.” – Professor Mike Daube Professor of Health Policy
“I will remember Peter as a man who continued to campaign for as long as he was fit and able to do so. He always had useful things to say, said with a quiet voice.” – Ron Singer, Doctors in Unite
“He was one of the original members of NHSCA. He was a prolific thinker and writer He was an active member of our Executive Committee for many years and then of KONP, continuing to contribute his thoughts and writings. In later years his activities were curtailed by bi-polar disorder with which he struggled bravely.” – Peter Fisher
Reference [1] https://www.theguardian.com/ society/2016/aug/22/peter-draper-obituary