In pictures: Faces of Battle

Gillies couldn't help everyone, but he learned from every case.

One of those was Henry Ralph Lumley whose face was horrifically burned. The Sidcup team tried a very advanced facial graft using a large flap of skin from Lumley's chest to try to repair it.

Sadly he didn't survive. Gillies realised he had tried too much, too quickly, and from then on carried out staged grafts.

This gradual rebuilding process forms the basis of the technique still followed today.