Gillies Bust

During its 75th anniversary scientific meeting at the Royal College of Surgeons, BAPRAS President Ruth Waters unveiled a commemorative bronze bust of our founding father, Sir Harold Gillies. The bust is currently on public view on the fourth floor of the refurbished Royal College of Surgeons of England, in London, sitting under a portrait of Gillies.

Sculptor Julia Beer was commissioned by the Rooksdown club to produce a life-sized bust commemorating the contribution Gillies made to injured servicemen whilst working at the park Private Hospital in Basingstoke during the Second World War. She did so using copies of photographs provided by the Collection. The first bust was unveiled upon its stone plinth in Basingstoke “Peace Garden”, opened to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War in 2018.

Our cast (see right), mounted on a wooden plinth, is the third copy. The second is at Queen Mary’s Hospital Sidcup. Our example was also donated by the Rooksdown club as one of its last acts before folding in 2021.

The BAPRAS example is cast in hollow Bronze using the ancient lost-wax process, known as cire perdue, an intricate method dating back over four thousand years. This complex, labour-intensive technique involves several alternating positive and negative steps, culminating in a wax sculpture which is "lost" by being melted within a ceramic shell. This creates a negative space into which molten bronze is poured. Our cast (see right), mounted on a wooden plinth, is the third copy. The second is at Queen Mary’s Hospital Sidcup. Our example was also donated by the Rooksdown club as one of its last acts before folding in 2021.

[Click here to see how Julia Beer turned a clay sculpture into a bronze cast.]