Harold Gillies established the first specialist maxillofacial unit in Britain. “The Facemaker”, a new book, recounts how he rebuilt the faces of soldiers maimed during the first world war
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitask“The Facemaker”, a new book, looks at the other aspect of plastic surgery—that which focuses on reconstruction, in many cases after trauma. Lindsey Fitzharris, a medical historian, describes the pioneering work done by Harold Gillies in the early 20th century. The powerful weaponry used in the first world war, including shells, grenades, mortar bombs and automatic guns, killed millions of men.
At the front he met Auguste Charles Valadier, a Franco-American dentist who had converted his Rolls-Royce into a mobile clinic. Valadier helped rebuild soldiers’ jaws by performing bone grafts and “distraction osteogenesis”, a method still used today which involves separating bone to promote new growth. Valadier’s work demonstrated to Gillies the importance of getting the “architecture” of the face right before addressing tissue damage.
He was also unfailingly kind to his patients, cognisant of the importance of an individual’s features to their sense of identity. “Don’t worry, sonny,” he would say, “you’ll be all right and have as good a face as most of us before we’re finished with you.” In the persona of “Dr Scroggie”, he encouraged his patients to break hospital rules around drinking and gambling, thereby introducing fun into the long, tedious and painful rehabilitation period.
Inevitably, “The Facemaker” sometimes makes for sad reading. One young man, “Corporal X”, made an astounding recovery after shrapnel destroyed his face. But he caught a glimpse of his reflection and, appalled by what he saw, wrote a letter to his fiancée and childhood sweetheart claiming that he had fallen in love with another woman. “It wouldn’t be fair to let a girl like Molly be tied to a miserable wreck like me,” he said. “I’m not going to let her sacrifice herself out of pity.
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