Psychiatrist and ex-Alliance leader who held posts from Peru to Oxford gets lifetime achievement award

The Royal College of Psychiatrists, the main body representing the profession in the UK, and which can trace its roots back to 1841, said it was an acknowledgement that the peer had risen to the very top of his profession.

Lord Alderdice joined the Alliance Party in 1978, and in 1987 at the age of 32, he was elected leader.

In his psychiatry career, he was appointed to professorships at the University of San Marcos in Peru, and at the Universities of Virginia and Maryland in the USA.

He currently holds appointments at Oxford University, including senior research fellow at Harris Manchester College and executive chairman of The Changing Character of War Centre at Pembroke College, among other positions.

In a statement accompanying the award, Lord Alderdice said: “This award is a demonstration of the good fortune I have had in my professional life to be encouraged by colleagues in psychiatry who care both about their patients, and the disturbed societies in which they live.”

Dr Adrian James, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “If anyone deserves a lifetime achievement award, it is Lord John Alderdice.

"Not only was he an ambassador for peace and conflict resolution during turbulent times in Northern Ireland but he is a focused and world-leading psychiatrist at the top of his profession.”

Dr Richard Wilson, chair of the NI branch of the society, said the peer “continues to be a leading light in the world of psychiatry” to this day.