The Gillies and Macalister Archives

Welcome to the new website that describes the most complete archive of medical notes from the Great War in the world.

The Queen's Hospital, Sidcup performed plastic surgery of the face between 1917 and 1925, and today's Queen Mary's Hospital possesses a unique collection of over 2500 case files relating to that era. The pages that follow show details of the collection; in addition there is background information about the present-day hospital and the Postgraduate Centre as well as the medical bibliography of the Great War and some useful links to sites about the war, plastic surgery and rheumatology.

Since the site was first developed we have added a number of image galleries which can be accessed from the sidebar links.

Dr Andrew Bamji FRCP, Consultant rheumatologist and Curator of the Gillies Archives

Queen Mary's Sidcup NHS Trust features in an upcoming BBC series on surgery. The trust, a worldwide pioneer in plastic surgery, was set up in 1914 to care for world war one servicemen with facial injuries. It features in episode 4 of 'Blood and guts: A history of surgery' which airs on BBC4 on 10 September at 9pm, presented by Michael Mosley.

Groundbreaking surgeon Sir Harold Gillies transformed the discipline of plastic surgery when he worked at the trust, then known as 'The Queen's Hospital', between 1917 and 1925. The trust still holds an unrivalled archive documenting his work and the development of the discipline. Researchers from across the world come to Sidcup to find out more about the early history of plastic surgery.

The trust is preparing to return to its roots as a centre of excellence for planned operations as part of the decisions under the 'A Picture of Health' consultation. Coming full circle, A Picture of Health proposes that planned surgery requiring an overnight stay for patients in Outer South East London will move to the Sidcup hospital in the coming years.

Other stories featured in the programme include the gruesome tale of American socialite and beauty, Gladys Deacon, who aged 22 had hot wax injected into her face to perfect her nose. It melted and destroyed her looks and she ended up in a psychiatric hospital where she died at 96.

The programme also looks at present day plastic surgery, which is on the cusp of one its greatest achievements of all time - the first full face transplant. Top surgeon Peter Butler discusses what it would feel like to live with someone else's face.

To use the photos attached, please request print versions and permission from: pictures@bbc.co.uk

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Where it all began: The Plastic Theatre, Queen Mary's Hospital, 1917. Harold Gillies is seated on the right

Professor Paul Deslandes of the University of Vermont spent some time in the archives during August 2008. He is a specialist in British history, the history of the British Empire, and the history of gender and sexuality. In addition to offering courses in these fields at UVM, he also teaches classes on the history of London and on twentieth-century British culture. He is the author of Oxbridge Men: British Masculinity and the Undergraduate Experience, 1850-1920 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

A team from "The Cholmeleian", the magazine of Highgate School, visited on 4th August 2008 to prepare an article for the "Medicine and Law" issue.

L to R: Michael Hammerson OC (WG 1956, Notes & News Editor), William Kelley (Student Editor) and Simon Appleton (Editor) The face in the background is a Canadian soldier, Preston,who was treated by the Australian section and drawn by Daryl Lindsay

Ann Gerike, poet, who is writing a collection on the subject of injury in WW1, visited the archives in early July to see the casenotes and browse the library.

The production team for "Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery" visited on 7th February 2008 to take background shots with a reconstruction of Harold Gillies, who is played by Alastair Monteith; the next day the team was to film Peter Butler, plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital, who is pioneering face transplantation.

The series starts on Wednesday 20th August at 9pm on BBC4 (it is repeated the following day, Thursday 21st at 10pm BBC4). The first episode in the series is called "Bloody Beginnings" and covers the earliest forms of surgery.

The episode on the history of plastic surgery is entitled "Fixing Faces" and is the fourth in the series, going out on Wednesday 10th September at 9pm on BBC4 (repeated Thurs 11th 10pm).

Left: Laura Mulholland, John Holdsworth and Alastair Monteith; Right: "HDG" reviews his glass slides

The archives were delighted to welcome a production team from BBC's "Timewatch" on 22nd February 2008. They are making a programme about the last days of WW1 and it was especially exciting to meet presenter Michael Palin who was clearly moved by the photographs in the casenotes.

"Timewatch" in the archives: John Hayes Fisher (producer/director) Alison Semour (production co-ordinator) Andrew, Michael, David Holmes (sound) Julian Clinkard (camera)

We have acquired a large number of interesting medical images from WW1 - but would welcome your help! Many postcards were produced for many of the hospitals around the British Isles - military hospitals, Red Cross hospitals and hospital ships in particular - together with images of hospitals in France, Italy and elsewhere. We have copies of quite a number of these. Of themselves thay are not always very photogenic, but should you possess any such postcards we would be very interested to receive a digital image - or more than one - to add to our archive collection. Please do email any images to the Curator.

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