What hospital could this be?

[philg]

The photo below shows my grandfather, Mark Gallagher (top right all bandaged up) in a group picture with some fellow patients. I'm just wondering where it might be.

What I do know is that he was injured early April 1918 and sustained injures to his face from machine gun fire. He was sent to Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup which specialised a plastic surgery where he stayed until September 1918. I don't know where he went from there, probably back home which was Hexham, but he may have spent time in a local hospital recovering further. I wonder if this photo is Sidcup or not. The only reason I wonder is the lack of other facial injury patiets as it was a facial injury specialist hospital.

Any help would be appreciated.

cheers

Phil

[Paul Nixon]

I'm not so sure that it ISN'T a facial injuries ward or hospital here.

You have at least one other man with bandages around his head and if you look at the majority of the other men's faces, there's something not quite right about a lot of them. It may be a trick of the light or the quality of the photo but some of them look as though they may have already undergone plastic surgery.

[BeppoSapone]

Queen Mary's Hospital Sidcup, has some records. Why not try contacting them?

"The Gillies archives of plastic surgery

This site describes the Great War plastic surgery records held at the Queen Mary's Hospital, with background information on the hospital itself, and how to visit the archives. Photographs from the archives are added weekly. Written by Dr Andrew Bamji FRCP, Consultant in Rheumatology and Rehabilitation."

See here: http://website.lineone.net/~andrewbamji/index.htm

[philg]

I did contact them but unfortunately they have no surviving record of my grandfather (about half the records survive). Typical!

You know Paul, you may be right, I'll see if I can get a better scan. Dr Bamji has seen this photo and couldn't decide for himself if it was Sidcup or not.

Phil