Airman remembers the ‘Guniea Pig Club’
A VETERAN who suffered horrific injuries during the Second World War has spoken about his time in the ‘Guinea Pig Club’ as it celebrates its 75th anniversary.
The club was formed by a group of burned Allied airmen and their surgeon, Sir Archibald McIndoe, and was a lifeline for Alan Morgan after he lost his fingers following a mission to Stuttgart on his 21st birthday.
Alan, from Romiley, was on board a Lancaster Bomber when flak caused the main door to fly open, resulting in a sudden drop in air pressure and temperature.
The wireless operator, known as Frank, attempted to close it but passed out almost immediately, so Alan – who was the flight engineer – stepped in and managed to get the door closed.
Alan said: “It was minus 45 degrees outside and I whipped my gloves off to see to Frank, and that was my mistake.
“Frank did say it was his fault I lost my fingers, but it wasn’t really.
“It was just one of those things. That’s all.”
The freezing temperatures left Alan with severely frostbitten fingers and the aircraft made an emergency landing for him to be taken to Chichester Hospital.
Gangrene set in and he was transferred to Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where all his fingers were amputated.
Here he was welcomed into the Guinea Pig Club, a social club set up by Sir Archibald to help recovering airmen deal with their life-changing injuries.
Alan said of his time in East Grinstead: “It was a home from home. It wasn’t a hospital, it was great.
“They christened me ‘Fingers Morgan’ because I had none! I’m proud to be in The Guinea Pig Club.”
Thanks to skilled treatment Alan was able to return to flying duties in 1945, flying Halifax bombers until he was demobbed later that year.
Since the club’s founding in 1941 the RAF Benevolent Fund has provided welfare and financial assistance to airmen who were disfigured during the course of the war, and the fund recently bought Alan a scooter to help him get out and about with his wife Ella, and turned the couple’s bathroom into a more easily accessible wet room.
To mark the 75th anniversary of The Guinea Pig Club and preserve its legacy, the RAF Benevolent Fund has collected interviews, photos, and videos of the Guinea Pigs on its website at rafbf.org/ GuineaPigClub.
Visitors to the site are encouraged to leave messages for the Guinea Pigs, which will be collected in a Book of Gratitude to be presented to the club.