Search new WWI plastic surgery records on findmypast.co.uk

13 July 2012

Search records for 2,328 men who received facial plastic surgery from Dr Harold Gillies between 1917 and 1925.

We have made these records available online for the first time. They can tell you the following about your ancestors: name, regiment, rank, the injuries they sustained, plus the dates they joined the army, arrived overseas, were wounded and then admitted and discharged from hospital.

Dr Gillies is renowned for developing the first skin grafting and plastic surgery techniques to treat WWI soldiers left wounded with severe facial disfigurements. More than 11,000 operations were performed between 1917 and 1925 at The Queen's Hospital in Sidcup, Kent.

As the records contain sensitive information, we have not published personal medical notes, hospital records and individual photographs. If your ancestors were injured in WWI and underwent surgery, you can search these records to see if they received treatment from Dr Gillies' team.

The Plastic Theatre, Queen Mary's Hospital, 1917. Harold Gillies is seated on the right. Photo courtesy of the Gillies Archives.