FASCINATING photos of injured soldiers World War One have been released in a new book looking at the early development of plastic surgery.
The black and white images show the soldiers' horrific facial injuries before and after treatment.
They follow the work of young surgeon Harold Gillies, who transformed the faces of those who were injured fighting on the front lines.
One set shows Private William Thomas from the 1st Cheshire Regiment who was admitted to The Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup, East London with the centre of his face missing in November 1918.
Six years later, after 19 operations which included a cheek, upper lip and nose reconstruction, William’s face unrecognisable from the wounded soldier admitted to hospital.
While a far cry from the perfection we see from plastic surgery these days, the transformation is incredible and would have greatly improved the quality of his life.
Other pictures show Arther Mears, who was treated in Sidcup after losing his lower jaw in September 1917.
It was reconstructed using one of his ribs.
There are also pictures of Gillies sitting inside the plastics theatre of The Queen’s hospital.
There are also pictures of The Royal Army Medical Corps loading British and French wounded soldiers onto a hospital train at Doullens, France, in April 1918.
The photos are part of a new book, Faces from the Front: Harold Gillies, The Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup and the Origins of Modern Plastic Surgery, written by Andrew Bamji.
“During the Great War, facial injury became a major focus of medical attention for the first time,” Mr Bamji wrote.
“Of all the horrific injuries suffered by soldiers during the conflict, facial wounds were the most obvious and had the capacity to cause the most reaction among those who viewed the wounded.
“This book is about the men who suffered from facial wounds, and the surgeons who repaired them.
“This work places emphasis on one man, Harold Gillies, whose drive and innovative approach were fundamental to these developments.”
In January 1916, Gillies established a dedicated ward for patients with facial injuries at the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, Hampshire.
After the Battle of the Somme, steps were taken to set up a new hospital specialising in the treatment of patients with facial injuries at Sidcup, South East London.
The Queen’s hospital opened in August 1917 and treated more than 5,000 patients up until the mid-1920s.
“Studies of the First World War often focus on the events and the fatalities of the war, or on cultural memory of the conflict,” Mr Bamji continued.
“Historians, writers, artists and poet speak of heroic sacrifice.
“However, few of them give thought to those whose lives were not ended by the conflict, but were changed forever.
“This book talks of those who were left to grow old, and whom age did weary, and is dedicated to their memory.”
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