The plaque, that
is maintained in good condition, reads:
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English
Heritage
Sir Archibald McIndoe 1900 -
1960 Reconstructive Surgeon lived here in flat
14
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The History
Learning website [visit
link] tells us:
"Archibald
McIndoe and the Guinea Pig Club
Archibald
McIndoe achieved international fame during the war, for his pioneering work with
plastic surgery on Battle of Britain fighter pilots. The skills developed by
McIndoe and his team on members of the Guinea Pig Club set standards used on
burns victims throughout the rest of the war and in years after.
Archibald
McIndoe was born on May 4th 1900 in Dunedin, New Zealand. He was the second of
four children and his father was a printer. McIndoe was taught at Otago High
School and later studied medicine at Otago University. After qualifying from
university, McIndoe became a house surgeon at Waihato Hospital. From here, he
was awarded a New Zealand Fellowship to study pathological anatomy in the United
States. While in America, McIndoe published several papers on chronic liver
disease. For this work, he received the John William White Scholarship for
foreign study.
In 1930,
McIndoe came to London. However he could find no work and on the suggestion of
Sir Harold Gillies, McIndoe took up a job as a clinical assistant in the
department of plastic surgery at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1932, McIndoe
passed his FRCS exams and was given a position as General Surgeon and lecturer
at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases. In 1934, McIndoe obtained a Fellowship of
the American College of Surgeons. McIndoe held this post until 1939 when he
became a consulting surgeon. In the previous year, McIndoe had been appointed
the RAF's consultant in plastic surgery.
McIndoe
started to work at the now famous Blond-McIndoe Research Centre based at the
Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, at the start of the war
and he himself found fame for the pioneering work he did with pilots
horrifically burned in their planes during the Battle of Britain. In all the
time at the hospital, McIndoe did not wear a military uniform and was never
himself subject to military discipline despite working for the RAF and with RAF
pilots.
Both the
Hurricanes and Spitfires were powered by powerful engines that gave both planes
the speed they needed during the battle. These engines were powered by
aviation fuel and both planes carried considerable quantities of this highly
inflammable liquid. If one of the fighters caught fire – which was a very common
occurrence if hit by enemy fire – the flames spread very quickly throughout the
plane, causing appalling injuries to a pilot. Those who survived such
occurrences could be horrifically burned. It was the work done on these men that
made McIndoe – and the burns unit - world famous. Such was the pioneering work
done by McIndoe, that the pilots were nicknamed “Guinea Pigs” simply because
what was being done on them was so new and no-one was over sure whether the
operations would be successful. Pilots who underwent plastic surgery belonged to
the Guinea Pig Club.
McIndoe dealt
with deep burns. He knew that early grafts were vital if the patient was not
going to suffer from loss of function as well as disfigurement. He also knew
that many of his patients (or "his boys") as McIndoe liked to call the pilots
were going to spend a considerable time in hospital. Some of his "boys" had over
thirty operations on them. McIndoe's big 'enemy' was graft rejection by the
patient. He learned by experience - both good and bad - hence his "boys" being
'guinea pigs'. For those who worked with McIndoe, he was known either as the
"The Boss" or "The Maestro".
McIndoe also
go the local community of East Grinstead involved. Because of their
disfigurement and the intensity of their operations, the recovering pilots could
not mix in the community. Despite the injured pilots heroism, there was a
general feeling that the public would not have been able to handle their
physical appearance in normal day-to-day circumstances. Two good friends of
McIndoe - Neville and Elaine Blond - assisted in developing more community help
and support for the pilots so that they did not feel ostracised from the very
people they had been helping to protect as fighter pilots. The Blond's persuaded
some families in East Grinstead to accept into their homes as guests the
recovering pilots at the hospital. Gradually more and more families agreed to
help thus bringing the pilots more and more into the town's
community.
McIndoe did
not just limit his work to a medical/physical level. He realised that the
injured pilots needed some form of psychological rehabilitation and he did his
best to facilitate this. After the war, McIndoe received many awards for his
work. During the war he was awarded a CBE and he was knighted in 1947. In 1949,
Sir Archibald McIndoe became a member of the Council of the Royal College of
Surgeons. In 1958, he became its vice-president. McIndoe also founded BAPS (the
British Association of Plastic Surgeons).
Very few
people can claim to have pioneered a new medical technique but McIndoe, along
with his team, can claim this honour. McIndoe died in 1960 and is buried
in the RAF's church of St Clement Danes. In March 1961, a new burns research
unit was established at Queen Victoria's Hospital and it was named the
Blond-McIndoe Unit in honour of the work done by
him."