Alan Reece was a consultant in the accident and emergency department at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead. He was born on 14 January 1945, the son of Ethel Muriel Reece née Forknall and Herbert Reece. He gained a BSc from Newcastle University in 1967 and qualified with a MB BS degree three years later. He joined the Royal Navy in 1981 as a surgeon lieutenant. He was promoted to surgeon lieutenant commander in 1982 and surgeon commander in 1989. In 1997 he became a principal medical officer having been the medical officer in command of a NATO exercise in 1992. Prior to his appointment as a consultant, he was a surgical registrar at Dryburn Hospital, Durham, a research fellow for the Northern Regional Health Authority and a senior registrar in the accident and emergency department at Newcastle General Hospital. He gained his FRCS in 1975 and was a founding fellow of the College of Emergency Medicine. He was a member of the Order of the Fleur- de-Lys, a non-masonic order of chivalry, and of the Order of St John. He married Ann M Barnett in 1969. They had two sons, Simon, who predeceased him in 2009, and Gareth. Reece died suddenly on 17 August 2017 whilst on holiday in Spain. He was 72.