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Frontispiece, xxiii, 317 pp, 4 color plates; x, pp. [319]-652, color plates 5-15; with many unnumbered text illustrations. 4to. Original two-toned cloth. The original clear wrappers are present but they are missing large pieces. The original slipcase is NOT present. Very Good. First Edition, First Printing. SIGNED BY HAROLD GILLIES: "With the Author's/ Compliments to/ A Great Lady/ And with appreciation of her life's work/ for the Sick & Wounded/ H. D. Gillies/ May 57". "The interest of this book to plastic surgeons is threefold. It is a textbook of plastic surgery unique in its humanness; it covers to a large extent the development of plastic surgery during the twentieth century; . . and it is an autobiography of the outstanding plastic surgeon of the century, whose influence has been felt throughout the world and will continue to be felt for years to come" (Foreword by Jerome P. Webster, p. xii). THE RECIPIENT: I have been told the "great lady" was Lady Louis Mountbatten, who is referred to on p. 440: "In memory of our work on the Danish burns from the Geyser explosion in 1923, the Free Danes living in England collected £3000 and built a recreation hut at Rooksdown in 1940. It was a great day, and Lady Louis Mountbatten, the Countess of Malmesbury, the Danish Ambassador and contributors were present at the opening. This Alexandra pavilion, named after our Danish Queen, was built of sandbags and cement, and gave our Miss Pollock a chance to establish Red Cross headquarters." However there isn't any ownership marking in this set. The Story of Rooksdown House is told by Simon Robert Millar, Rooksdown House and the Rooksdown Club: A Study into the Rehabilitation of Facially Disfigured Servicemen and Civilians Following the Second World War, which can be read online. AS FOR EDWINA CYNTHIA ANNETTE MOUNTBATTEN (1901-1960), a good source for her medical activities during WWII is Alden Hatch, The Mountbattens (1966): "during the war Edwina achieved what is no exaggeration to call her apotheosis. All her latent humanitarianism and her splendid energy were utterly committed to her incredibly strenuous service. . . . she seemed always to be going 'full ahead'. Since 1922 Edwina had belonged to the Order of St John, and was vitally interested in its world-wide field of work, 'for the good of Humanity'. . . . Just before the war Edwina . . . became an auxiliary nurse with St. John Brigade. In 1940, having passed her examinations, she became a member of the Kensington Nursing Division of St. John, and was made an officer of that unit. She rapidly rose to deputy superintendent-in-chief of St. John Nursing Division, in charge of all St. John personnel staffing the London A.R.P. services in ambulances, air-raid shelters, first-aid and medical posts. When the blitz burst over London in October Edwina showed her quality. She worked all day in her office, and spent most of her nights in the air-raid shelters under the rotten old houses of London's East End. These dismal relics of Dickensian squalor took the worst beating of all; their inhabitants lived nightly in the dank, rat-infested cellars, tunnels, vaults, and crypts of churches, while their miserable habitations were blown to rubble above their heads. In her plain, dark-blue uniform and perky blue and white hat, Edwina was as beautiful and electric as ever. Wherever she passed and paused to chat and encourage, a wave of rising morale followed her like an induced current of enthusiasm. . . . Edwina, who had been made Superintendent-in-Chief of St. John Ambulance Brigade in 1942, with over a hundred thousand men and women under her direction, had continued her remarkably efficient and dedicated work. Hardly had Eisenhower's army landed in Normandy than she was over there in the thick of it, organizing the medical and recreational services, and spending her incredible energy cheering the wounded in front-line hospital tents" (pp. 253-54, 310). Seller Inventory # 17351
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