This hospital was purpose built to treat the wounded with facial injuries. Unfortunately, the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot (the first plastics unit in the British Empire) did not have the capacity to continue to treat the numbers of wounded after the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Queen Mary's opened in July 1917 initially with 300 beds quickly increasing to 500. New Zealander Harold Gillies took command of the hospital with Henry Pickerill looking after the New Zealand Section. They set about restoring the badly damaged faces of the soldiers. Gillies introduced the tubed pedicle and helped pioneer tissue transfer. These surgical procedures would be done in stages and patients would endure many operations and treatment often taking years to complete. Detailed records were kept for each patient in the form of documents, diagrams and illustrations. A wonderful source of information are the Gillies archives at Queen Mary's Sidcup. www.gilliesarchives.org.uk