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India Today
3 days ago
- Health
- India Today
The facemaker of World War 1: how Harold Gillies gave shattered soldiers a new self
Today, when we hear the words 'plastic surgery,' it often conjures images of celebrities fine-tuning their looks under bright Hollywood lights. But long before it was about aesthetic tweaks, it was about survival -- about restoring identity to those whose faces had been taken by war or fire or trenches of the First World War unleashed a kind of devastation few could have imagined. Men returned to Britain with their jaws blown off, noses missing, eyes sealed shut -- shells of their former at Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot, England, a young surgeon from New Zealand saw something others didn't. He looked beyond the torn skin and shattered bones and asked a different kind of question: what if surgery could bring not just flesh, but identity, back to life?FROM DUNEDIN DREAMER TO SURGICAL PIONEEROn June 17, 1882, Harold Delf Gillies was born into a world of rhetoric and renaissance. His father was a Member of Parliament in Dunedin, NewZealand, and his mother was related to the whimsical poet Edward Whanganui Collegiate, young Gillies excelled in medicine, but also cricket and golf. Those qualities would shape his later life: physical precision mixed with a creative England, he read medicine at Cambridge's Gonville and Caius, where he rowed in the 1904 Boat Race and played golf for England. Then came London and Hospital, where he trained in 1911, he'd married Kathleen Margaret Jackson, and shortly after, World War I broke out. Group photo at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup in 1917, including Harold Gillies, William Kelsey Fry and Henry Tonks (1917) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) A WAR SCULPTED A NEW VISIONHe arrived on the Western Front in 1915, a 32-year-old doctor with tools, questions, and a quiet kind of French surgeon Hippolyte Morestin, Harold Gillies watched as damaged jaws were covered using pieces of skin from other parts of the body. The sight moved him in London, he convinced the military to let him create a special ward at Aldershot, dedicated entirely to soldiers with facial he was bringing wounded men from the front lines to England -- not just to fix their wounds, but to help them rebuild their sense of first ward would grow. By 1917, the Queen's Hospital (later renamed Queen Mary's Hospital) opened in Sidcup, England, a place where medicine met Gillies assembled a team of surgeons, dentists, anaesthetists, and artists -- all working in harmony to develop new ways of healing. They used skin grafts layered like building blocks, and carefully shaped pieces of tissue to rebuild faces feature by SURGERY, REBUILDING FACESadvertisementThe most famous of Gillies' breakthroughs was something that, on paper, sounded bizarre: the 'tubed pedicle flap.'In an era before antibiotics, open wounds were a dangerous gamble. So Gillies came up with a solution -- shaping skin into tubes while keeping one end attached to the body, so it stayed living skin was slowly moved, bit by bit, across the face until it reached the damaged area. It looked strange, but it 8,000 soldiers were treated using this method at Sidcup. For many, it gave them something beyond survival -- it gave them their face back. Walter Yeo, the first person to receive plastic surgery, before (left) and after (right) skin flap surgery performed by Sir Harold Delf Gillies in 1917. The pictures of Walter's face before the surgery are blurry and hard to come by. In the tragic accident he was recorded as having lost both his upper and lower eyelids. The surgery was some of the first to use a skin flap from an unaffected area of the body and paved the way for a sudden rash of improvements in this field. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) advertisementGillies planned every operation with care. He drew sketches on envelopes and scrap paper, built wax masks and plaster moulds to imagine how a face could be put back together.'Use your eyes first, dirty fingers later,' he would say. His surgery wasn't just skill -- it was craft.A CUP OF COLOUR AND A STREAK OF HUMOURHe wasn't always serious. Gillies liked mischief as much as medicine. He often lit up a Cuban cigar while testing colours in his spectrometer, a tool used for analysing chemical elements, claiming it helped him check lithium lines. It probably also amused the operating theatre, Gillies was a champion golfer, earning his Blue at Cambridge and competing in national tournaments -- even tweaking surgical tools to suit his golfer's grip. He was widely regarded in the early 1920s as one of the finest amateur golfers in England. Harold Gillies was one of the best amateur golfers in England (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) advertisementAnd then there was 'Dr Scroggie from South Africa' -- a persona he created for fun. Dressed in a fake beard and wig, Gillies once walked into his own home pretending to be a visiting doctor. He even fooled his colleagues roared with laughter when they realised the trick -- it was the kind of prank that became legend in his personal life had its own chapters. He married Kathleen Jackson and had children, but lost her in 1957. Later that year, he married Marjorie Clayton, his assistant and close companion for lived for people, progress, and humour -- sometimes all in one operating WAR: A NEW ERA IN SURGERYAfter 1918, Gillies sowed his seeds in civilian soil. His book Plastic Surgery of the Face (1920) became the cornerstone of modern surgery. He founded units around the world, training others like Archibald McIndoe and Rainsford in WWII, his influence helped build effective plastic surgery teams. In 1946 he performed one of the first female-to-male affirming surgeries (MichaelDillon) and in 1951 worked with gender pioneering RobertaCowell. Dr. Gillis, who operated on the Danish sailors injured in the geyser explosion (2nd from the left) (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) When asked why, he replied simply: 'If it gives real happiness, that is the most any medicine can give.'A DOCTOR'S LAST ACTGillies worked nearly to the end. He died on September 10, 1960, days after a stroke, still amid a life of purpose and left no fortune, but his real legacy lives on in faces once surgery may now conjure cosmetic bowls on screens. But Gillies reminded the world it was always about function, dignity, reclaiming used art to heal a person's soul as well as their skin. He proved science can be creative. And he offered hope where despair once reigned.
NZ Herald
30-04-2025
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Athletics Insight: Secondary Schools Association stands test of time
The first international event was in cross country with a match with Victoria in 1976, a team in which Whanganui Collegiate athlete Chris Fallows was a member. The first New Zealand Schools Team travelled overseas in 1981, competing in the Australian Schools Cross Country in Tasmania. Over the years, the association grew and introduced new events such as hammer, triple jump and steeplechase for girls before they had been adopted by the national body. Over time, the association developed a stronger and closer relationship with Athletics New Zealand. The major championships, notably track and field, have become major national events on the schools' sporting calendar with more than 200 New Zealand secondary schools participating annually. Initially, international competition only happened occasionally, and it was for this reason that 'paper teams' were selected for cross country and track and field to give recognition to our leading athletes each year, even if there was no tour. Athletes selected had access to a travel grant. From 2012, New Zealand Schools has regularly selected touring teams for track and field and cross country. For the latter, athletes know that if they finish in the top 10 in the senior race, they have automatic selection, with others added to the team of 24 (12 boys and 12 girls). The past 12 months have been busy for the post-Covid New Zealand Schools Association. Chairman and former New Zealand Olympian Tony Rogers led the cross country team (selected from the New Zealand Schools 2023 Championships) to the ISF World Schools Cross Country in Kenya. The team prepared in South Africa. Last August, a team selected at the 2024 NZ Schools Cross Country Championships in Christchurch competed at the Australian Schools Championships in Melbourne. After the 2024 Track and Field Championships in Timaru, the usual 55-strong 'paper team', now called the 'Championship Team', was selected. All those selected were given an opportunity to compete at the January Classic Meetings on the Secondary Schools' Classics Tour. Forty athletes took up this opportunity along with three young officials as part of a development programme. New Zealand Schools has regularly sent a team to the Australian championships. This year's championships were scheduled for Perth, Western Australia. However, it was decided to select a team of 15 to travel to California rather than Perth. Although the cost was higher, California offered a series of meets and a great track and field experience at a not hugely higher cost than distant Western Australia. The association did send a team of three Para-athletes, managed by Raylene Bates, to Perth. The trio performed with distinction, setting three New Zealand records. Whanganui Collegiate athlete Juliet McKinlay was part of the California team. McKinlay competed at four meets, including the prestigious Arcadia Multi Events, and has returned enriched by her experience. She and the team adapted to the varied conditions which went from 31C at Arcadia to 6C at Cal State. All the team flourished in the high level of competition. McKinlay adapted to heavier implements and higher hurdles and rounded off her season with a series of excellent performances. Team manager Ange Russek, in her report, highlighted the many positive lessons from the tour. These included self-management of competition preparation in a new environment, processing performances and takeaways for future events/competitions. Athletes adjusted nutrition, sleep patterns and recovery methods. The team environment allowed athletes to support teammates over long days at the track as part of a team culture that valued all. The association has clearly met its aims.
