This unique military records collection indexes the ground breaking medical work performed by Dr. Harold Gillies on disfigured soldiers before and after World War One. Dr. Gillies developed plastic surgery techniques that completed some of the first successful skin grafts. Search for your ancestor by name and by regiment.
This unique military records collection indexes the ground breaking medical work performed by Dr. Harold Gillies on disfigured soldiers before and after World War One. Dr. Gillies developed plastic surgery techniques that completed some of the first successful skin grafts. Search for your ancestor by name and by regiment.
Each record includes a transcript of the original records. The amount of information in each record can vary, but most will include the following:
Marvels in modern medicine: Gillies' Plastic Surgery innovations
Harold Gillies' work allowed wounded soldiers to leave the war and live normal lives that otherwise may have left a physical reminder to be carried forever.
Perhaps his most ground breaking feat, Dr. Harold Gillies introduced the tubed pedicle, which used the patients’ own tissue to be used to patch unsightly wounds with reconstructive surgery. By using tissue from the patient, instead of another person or animal, reduces the chance of rejection and late complications.
These Gillies plastic surgery records document medical procedures that moulded the field of modern medicine in the 20th century. After the First World War, he received a knighthood for his work in 1930.
The Gillies Plastic Surgery Archives
The Plastic Surgery archives lists 110,000 operations performed from 1917 to 1925. The Gillies Archives offer personal details that will further aid family historians to find specific persons, information such as rank, tour dates, injuries, and admission and release from the hospital.
Plastic Surgery of the Face, and Gillies surgery photos
Harold Gillies’ book, Plastic Surgery of the Face, is available as a free download from the Gillies internet archive, and if you do download it and browse through the pages.
Due to often graphic nature and poor quality for the photos, Findmypast decided against hosting the photos online at this time. The personal medical records and individual photographs of soldiers will not all be available online due to their sensitive nature.