From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: Europe’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed.
The war claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. Not all soldiers had access to surgery, nor did everyone wish to undergo months (or years) of painful operations.
Artists sculpted masks for disfigured soldiers. This prosthesis was created by the American sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd. During the war, she created masks of the soldiers’ faces from clay or plasticine in order to create a prosthetic piece made of thin galvanized copper.
The metal was painted with hard enamel to resemble the recipient's skin tone. Ladd then used real hair to create the eyelashes, eyebrows and moustaches. Had it not been for her efforts, many of these men would have lived in isolation.
My next book, THE FACEMAKER, is about the pioneering surgeon Harold Gillies, who rebulit soldiers' faces during WW1. Gillies established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction.
It was there that he assembled a unique group of practitioners that included artists and mask makers. Their task was to restore what had been torn apart, to recreate what had been destroyed. Gillies and his team restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits.
I'm so excited (and nervous) to share five years of research with you. #TheFacemaker comes out June 7, and I would be hugely grateful for your preorders. SIGNED copies still available.
During the Civil War, attempts were made to reconstruct the faces of soldiers injured in battle. Pictured here is Private Roland Ward, who underwent several operations without anesthetic to repair his face in the 1860s.
(3/8) The most skillful surgeon to emerge during this period was Gurdon Buck, who helped repair the face of Private Carleton Burgan (below) after a gangrenous infection destroyed his upper mouth, palate, right cheek & eye.
(1/15) My forthcoming book THE FACEMAKER is about the pioneering surgeon Harold Gillies who rebuilt soldiers' faces during World War I. But Gillies is only one part of this story. Today's THREAD is in honour of the nurses who played an integral part in the war effort.👇
(2/15) Never before had the world faced such slaughter. During WWI, medical staff applied 1.5 million splints, administered 1,088 million doses of drugs, fitted over 20,000 artificial eyes & used 7,250 tons of cotton wool while applying 108 million bandages to injured combatants.
(3/15) More than 6,000 medical staff would die and over 17,000 would be wounded in the British Army alone. No matter how hard doctors and nurses worked, they were consistently overwhelmed by the sheer number of wounded men.
From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed.
The war claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. Not all soldiers had access to surgery, nor did everyone wish to undergo months (or years) of painful operations.
Artists sculpted masks for disfigured soldiers. This prosthesis was created by the American sculptor Anna Coleman Ladd. During the war, she created masks of the soldiers’ faces from clay or plasticine in order to create a prosthetic piece made of thin galvanized copper.
In 1887, the artist George F. Watts proposed a tribute of a different sort for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. He believed art could act as a force for social change & suggested a monument celebrating "heroism in every-day life."
(2/12) Watts referred to Alice Ayres, a nursemaid who died in a fire after she saved the lives of her employer’s children by throwing a mattress out the window and dropping them to safety. She was then overcome by the fumes and stumbled out of the window to her death.
(3/12) Watts proposed that a marble wall inscribed with the names of everyday heroes be built in Hyde Park. Sadly, his suggestion could not garner enough support, leading him to quip that if he had proposed a race course instead, he would have had plenty of sympathizers.
Here’s a true story about a woman who survived her execution, only to end up on the anatomist’s dissection table in the 17th century. Follow along as I untangle this terrible tale for you.
(2/7) It was a cold, blustery morning in 1651 when Anne Greene, an unmarried woman, was led to her place of execution at Cattle Yard in Oxford. Just days before, she had been found guilty of murdering her newborn baby and hiding its corpse in her employer’s house.
(3/7) As she approached the gallows, she declared her innocence, blaming instead "the lewdness of the Family wherein she lately lived." Afterwards, the executioner secured the noose around her neck & turned the ladder, leaving her to hang before the crowd.
In the 19th century, it was customary during a funeral to provide biscuits for mourners to take away. They were often wrapped and sealed in black wax. Here you see an example of a funeral biscuit wrapper from 1828.
(2/9) This tradition was probably derived from the earlier practice of "sin-eating," whereby the sins of the deceased were transferred to a person who, for a fee, consumed food & drink handed to him over the coffin.
(3/9) Mourners would pay the village sin-eater to rid their departed loved ones from all the sins they had accumulated during their lives. The sin-eater would then perform a ritual which would allow the dead to enter Heaven unburdened.