Background
Rea was born in 1928 to James Russell Rea and Betty Rea and attended Dartington Hall School in Devon, Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts and Dauntsey"s School in Wiltshire.
Rea was born in 1928 to James Russell Rea and Betty Rea and attended Dartington Hall School in Devon, Belmont Hill School in Massachusetts and Dauntsey"s School in Wiltshire.
He was further educated at Christ"s College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in natural sciences, a Bachelor of Medicine, a Bachelor of Surgery in 1951, and became a Doctor of Medicine (Doctor of Medicine) in 1969.
In 1981, he succeeded to the Barony of Rea. Rea served as Acting Sergeant in the Suffolk Regiment between 1946 and 1948, and held various Junior hospital posts between 1954 and 1957. He was research fellow in paediatrics in Ibadan and Lagos in Nigeria from 1962 to 1965, and lecturer in social medicine at Street Thomas"s Hospital Medical School in London from 1966 to 1968.
From 1957 to 1962, and from 1968 to 1993, he also worked as general practitioner in North London.
He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and one of the ninety elected hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords after the House of Lords Acting 1999. In the House of Lords he sits on the Labour benches.
Rea is a member of Amicus, Healthlink Worldwide and the Mary Ward Centre.