Surgeon remembered for his pioneering work

ONE OF the few remaining members of a club for seriously burned Second World War airmen has remembered the surgeon who rebuilt his life – 80 years after the formation of the pioneering society.

The Guinea Pig Club was established on July 20, 1941, to support young airmen with devastating injuries, taking its name from the experimental treatment they received.

Injured men helped the development of plastic surgery in the early days of the procedures, and also challenged the existing perception that disabilities were life-limiting and mentored other burns victims.

Visionary surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe oversaw new techniques treating the wounded at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex, and his work has been remembered by Jim Marshall, 98, who joined the RAF in 1941 aged 18.

Mr Marshall underwent three years of rehabilitation in an Italian hospital after surviving a plane crash in 1945 which killed the rest of the crew. They had previously flown 100 missions without incident.

The navigator, who flew principally in Wellington bombers, underwent treatment in East Grinstead, which became known as “the town which didn’t stare” as locals were accustomed to wounded servicemen in their midst.

Mr Marshall, now living at the Erskine veterans’ village at Bishopton, Renfrewshire, and the last of the club alive in Scotland, said: “The Guinea Pig Club means to me what it means to many people – life. McIndoe was very approachable.

“He would come and talk to us all, he was very popular with all the patients.”