Robert George Bailey was born on 3 February 1956 and studied medicine at Cambridge University, graduating MB, BChir in 1980. After working as a surgical registrar at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, he moved to Peterborough, taking up a surgical post at the Edith Cavell Hospital. Later he took up general practice and became a senior partner at the Minster Medical Practice in Peterborough. His body was discovered in the French Alps on 16 April 2019, four weeks after he had set off for a hike on his own on 21 March. He had been staying at Les Houches in Chamonix and, according to a friend he was on holiday with, decided to go off on his own while the others were going skiing. Apparently he suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure and had suffered a mini-stroke in 2016. At the inquest in January 2020 the coroner decided that he died from natural causes as there was no evidence that he had suffered external trauma and was an experienced walker. He was 63 when he died and was survived by his wife and two children.