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8 unusual facts about Archibald McIndoe


Archibald McIndoe

In 1932 McIndoe received a permanent appointment as a General Surgeon and Lecturer at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Among the better-known members of his "club" were Richard Hillary, Bill Foxley and Jimmy Edwards.

He was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the Royal Air Force church of St Clement Danes just after helping set up AMREF in the UK.

Dennis Walters

Walters has been married three times: firstly in 1955 to Vanora, a daughter of the surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe (divorced 1969); secondly to Celia Sandys, daughter of the politician Duncan Sandys (divorced 1979); and thirdly, in 1981, to Bridgett Shearer (divorced 1992).

George Bennions

Bennions was transferred to Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, where he was one of the first pilots in the care of Sir Archibald McIndoe, the pioneer of plastic surgery for the treatment for severe burns.

Rauceby Hospital

During its tenure as a burns unit plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe worked at the facility, along with other members of the "Guinea Pig Club".

Robert Boscawen

He was evacuated to Archibald McIndoe's pioneering “Guinea Pig Club” plastic surgery unit at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, Sussex spending much of the next three years in hospital.

St Clair, New Zealand

The McIndoe family included the founder of one of the city's main printing firms, John McIndoe, and Sir Archibald McIndoe, a pioneer in the field of plastic surgery.


Waikato Hospital

Plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe trained as a house surgeon at Waikato hospital prior to working in the US and UK with his cousin Harold Gillies.


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