))
Meet the Guinea Pig Club. The astonishing story of the Allied Airmen who formed WW2’s most unique club. A tale of unsung heroines, pioneering surgery and sex in the linen cupboard!
Manage episode 385633653 series 3505976
Content provided by Kate Thompson. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Kate Thompson or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.
20th July 1941. It is a dark night in war-torn Britain. In blacked out Sussex a band of men sit huddled in an old shed, deep in the countryside. One by one they make a pledge to join a very special little wartime club. A toast is drunk to the forming of The Guinea Pig Club.
It was the most exclusive club in the world, but as the founding member admitted, "the entrance fee is something most men would not care to pay and the conditions are arduous in the extreme".
The club was made up of Allied Aircrew who were all being treated by surgeon Archibald McIndoe for horrific burns suffered whilst in active combat.
McIndoe was something of a pioneer, using groundbreaking plastic surgery techniques. He passionately believed that if the injured airmen were to have any future he needed to help them recover their place in the world.
Unconventional, the doctor encouraged drinking and flirting with the nurses on the ward. One of the nurses granddaughter's, Dr Emily Mayhew, a military medical historian and author of The Guinea Pig Club: Archibald McIndoe and the RAF in WW11 lifts the lid on a extraordinary wartime club.
Thank you to our media partner: Family History Zone – a website covering archives, history and genealogy. Please check then out at www.familyhistory.zone and consider signing up for their free weekly newsletter.
49 episodes
Share
