Originally from Toowoomba, one of five children, where his father was a dentist and his mother a well-known local politician, Chris Alroe attended a Christian Brothers School and studied medicine at the University of Queensland where his main activities apart from study were debating and fencing. In the former, he was chosen to debate Oxford Union on Television, and in the latter achieved a half blue in fencing and was National Intervarsity Champion.

After completing his medical degree, he went to the outback and worked under the great bush surgeon Louis Ariotti. These experiences are detailed in his book. Chris then completed his studies in Psychiatry, was Captain of the Queensland Fencing Team, and had two successful plays performed by a local theatre company, Threads, and No Garden Gnomes. Threads reached the finals of the Australian National Playwrights Conference.

He became a psychiatrist then practiced in Central Queensland, having the highest patient load in Australia for a specialist. He was politically active in the sense that he was appointed to the State Council of the AMA and ran for Federal Parliament. He was also President of the Queensland Country Psychiatrists Organisation. He became a major in the Australian Army Reserve and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and put in command of the Health Element on Bougainville during Operation Bel Isi. Around that time, he was appointed Director of Mental Health for the Fraser Coast District.

He became a specialist in General Practice after a long battle with the medical board of Australia who was forced to back down, awarding him his specialist qualifications with costs. During this work, Chris Alroe acquired a number of specialist post-graduate medical qualifications in Skin and Cancer surgery. He retired from General Medicine in 2020 to concentrate on his writing and his sport of fencing. He was a successful competitor whose veteran’s team came third in the Australian National Fencing Champion in 2018.

Chris Alroe has a list of learned academic medical articles which are still frequently cited in the literature.

He is married to Maria, a senior English teacher, and has three children. He now lives on the Coast in Townsville.