Walter Edward (Ted) Fisher became established as a consultant physician in Sydney on completion of his postgraduate training. This training period had included resident and registrar posts at several Sydney hospitals, becoming a Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1929, research as Marion Clare Reddell research fellow of the University of Sydney from 1931 to 1932 and gaining the MD in 1936. When the College was founded in 1938 he was an honorary assistant physician and tutor in medicine at Sydney Hospital, and in private consulting practice at 151 Macquarie Street, Sydney. He was elected a foundation Fellow. World War II erupted the following year and his experiences as a prisoner of war were to have a profound influence on him.

Fisher enlisted in the AIF in 1940 and was a major in the 2/4 Casualty Clearing Station. He was stationed in Malaya for twelve months prior to the commencement of the Japanese Malayan campaign and became a prisoner of war after the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942. He was transferred to Thailand, working in appalling conditions caring for the prisoners of war labouring on the infamous Thai railway. During this ordeal he gained recognition for his care of the sick and his personal courage and integrity. He returned to Australia in 1945 to his consulting practice and had two great causes: Sydney Hospital and the welfare of those who had been prisoners of war under the Japanese.

On returning from a visit to America on a Carnegie travelling scholarship he introduced to Sydney Hospital various clinical meetings of the type common in American schools. This gave the Hospital a stimulus and had a revitalising affect on its teaching. He was the chairman of the Sydney Hospital medical board from 1955 to 1958. He was the foundation chairman of the 8th Division Council - the 8th being the Australian Army division which had been overwhelmed in the Malayan campaign - and was totally involved in the social and medical problems of ex-Japanese prisoners of war. He became politically active, communicated with various prominent politicians and persuaded the prime minister to authorise an allowance of three shillings a day to ex-Japanese prisoners of war, which had been denied by Army regulations. He arranged with the Repatriation Department for a five year medical survey of ex-Japanese prisoners of war. Many former prisoners of the Japanese were found to be suffering from persistent infestations of Strongyloides stercoralis, but on the whole those who survived were healthy.

Fisher had a haughty manner which was used to cover a sensitive and somewhat self-conscious character. This characteristic made him hard to know and caused him to be misunderstood. He was of high integrity, aggressively intolerant of inefficiency and sham, and his demand for high standards sometimes aroused animosity.

He never married and in the thirties lived at Wesley College, University of Sydney as vice-master and lecturer in medicine. After the War he lived with his mother until his death.