The Facemaker, Lindsey Fitzharris.

This is not a book for the squeamish.

Apart from the details of various operations there are several photographs of men wounded in action, their faces disfigured, and later pictures of the result of the work upon them.  

Plastic surgery is commonplace now, however, in 1914 it was a new skill.  Attempts had been made for several hundred years to mend broken faces, even forms of skin grafts.  However, all failed, the lack of knowledge of blood, germs, and the complex nature of the human body led to failure, often glorious failure, but failure anyway.

Wars tend to be dangerous for the men involved, and the Great War was a war of men.  The second word war was a war of aircraft and submarines, today we fight with missiles and drones.  However, in the end the PBI, the poor bloody infantry, have to go in.  During the great was machine gun bullets made men take cover, artillery shell blew them apart, bullets and shrapnel smashed bodies.  The man who lost an arm or a leg was better off than the man who lost his face.  Many a woman left a man so seriously damaged, some would not blame her, many an employer would not allow a face damaged man near his customers, many refusing to employ such.  The 'Homes built for heroes,' were never built, nor were jobs made available for wounded men, especially those with wounded features. 

Attempts at healing began at the CCS, the Casualty Clearing Stations just behind the line.  The word 'just' is doing a lot there, it was often several miles from the line.  Walking wounded walked on, those who could not be helped were placed aside, many operations saved lives but could not deal in great depth with all wounds.  

Patched up men landed at tented hospitals near the coast, others found themselves 'somewhere in England,' far from home and not always receiving the correct treatment.  For men with facial disfigurement Harold Gilles was a saviour. 

Over four years of war, he fought the war department, senior medical staff, and anyone willing to argue, to get better facilities for treating men with damaged faces.    After much hassle, and having proved how to develop plastic surgery, he settled in Sidcup, at the Queens Hospital, and eventually had a team from all parts of the Empire working on damaged men.  

The images of men shot in the jaw, or burnt in a ships fire are not easy to contemplate.  Imagine being a nurse or doctor having to see such day after day?  Nursing staff, orderlies, the surgeons, all worked together, with some jealousy and ambition of course, to create a peaceful even happy atmosphere for the men.  The men themselves did not lie down when they knew someone was trying to heal them.  They also came together to encourage one another.

This book covers the various surgeons, dentists, and other specialists, who were not specialists before the war, as they seek ways to men broken jaws, eyes, skulls.  The photographs are revolting to some, yet they record the changes as various operations, some men had well over 40, as men were given back some form of human face.  On occasion, it is just marvellous what was achieved.

The men after a war were of course forgotten as soldiers always are.  Some received a pension, others merely faded away.  The staff also returned to their normal work, yet the facemaking led by Gillies continues today.  His work benefitted many men during the next war as his discoveries were developed by others.  He himself was forgotten of course, though he was eventually given a knighthood in 1930.  The men upon whom he had operated remembered him then, many congratulating and thanking him for what he had done for them.   Now that is a reward few can better.

Read this book!