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WW1 Plastic Surgery Pioneers Honoured

 
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jrah60
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 3:09 pm    Post subject: WW1 Plastic Surgery Pioneers Honoured Reply with quote

WW1 Plastic Surgery Pioneers Honoured

By Steve Coxon on August 13, 2014

A plaque being unveiled at a Kent care home this week will honour one of the unsung heroes of the First World War, the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies.

Frognal House, near Sidcup, dates back to the 16th century and was once the family seat of Viscount Sydney of Chislehurst, who gave his name to the then fledgling Australian settlement.

His descendants sold the house to the Government in 1915. In 1917, it became the Queen's Hospital (later Queen Mary's Hospital), Sidcup.

During the First World War, the hospital became renowned as a pioneering centre for facial and plastic surgery led by Harold Gillies – known as the ‘father of plastic surgery’. Gillies was later knighted for his work.

Together with its convalescent sections, Frognal House had around 1,000 beds. Between 1917 and 1921, more than 11,000 plastic surgery operations were carried out on over 5,000 men who had been terribly disfigured during the fighting.

In 1974, a new Queen Mary's Hospital was built to replace the original Great War hospital. Sunrise Senior Living took over the building in November 1999 and turned it into a high quality care home that houses over 100 residents, including some in a specialised neighbourhood dedicated to dementia care.

To mark the home's key role in both the First World War and the development of plastic surgery, a plaque will be unveiled on Saturday 16th August by the Mayor of Bexley, Councillor Howard Marriner.

"As this year marks the centenary of the start of the Great War, we felt it was only fitting that we should also remember the role that Frognal House played." says Jeremy Garman, Senior Marketing Director for Sunrise in the UK. "It's amazing to think of the life-changing work that went on here."

John
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