Everything Gillies

Harold Gillies wasn’t just a remarkable surgeon, he was a remarkable man. 

A visionary who arguably changed the course of medicine by coalescing a group of techniques in their early stages of development, into a new surgical specialty – plastic surgery. He realised the power that concentrating personnel and resources in one place could have in propelling knowledge and skills in this “Strange new art”. He also recognised the pivotal importance of patient psychology and the requirement to return severely injured and disfigured servicement to being functional members of society. In so doing he pioneered the integrated care record, and multidisciplinary or “holistic” care, still the standard today. 

Gillies was also a talented sportsman, fisherman, keen artist and inventor, with a slightly irascible personality, but a wicked sense of humour. In this gallery we highlight the many facets of his personality, career and life outside surgery.