Edward Blacksell – Welfare and Rehabilitation Officer – Guinea Pig Club

Edward Blacksell, or Blackie, as he was normally known, played an important role assisting Archibald McIndoe’s work with the Guinea Pig Club at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead.  He helped with rebuilding the bodies and lives of the badly burned aircrew during the Second World War. An RAF physical

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Group Captain Ross Tilley

During World War Two,  Archibald McIndoe, a pioneering Plastic Surgeon,  treated burnt airmen at  the Queen Victoria Hospital (Q.V.H) East Grinstead.  Working alongside him was an equally talented Canadian plastic surgeon, Group Captain Albert Ross Tilley.  Ross Tilley also helped to rebuild lives and made such an impact that the

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EAST GRINSTEAD HIGH STREET

 Image 1. East Grinstead was founded in medieval times.  The broad High Street was designed as a market place, lined on either side by long narrow strips called ‘portlands’, each about 200 metres, or one furlong  in length. (Ah, the rods, chains and furlongs of my youth, so diligently learned,

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MY HOUSE, IN THE MIDDLE OF MY STREET ….

Museum volunteer and local resident Loral Bennett uses the Museum archives to look at the history of 85 West Street At one time, West Street was known as Chapel Lane, as it led to the town cemetery chapel, with its separate areas for the established church worshippers and dissenters. Until

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A Guided Tour of Queen Victoria Hospital

Bob Marchant, honorary member of the Guinea Pig club and once an operating theatre technician at the Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH) under Sir Archibald McIndoe, kindly gave a few of us museum staff a tour of the hospital. Built as a town hospital, the impact of WWII led to the

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The Research Room

East Grinstead Museum has a wonderful research room available for visitors and researchers alike.   With books, magazines, and news paper cuttings about the local area you are able to read and research your area of interest. As a result of our Rebuilding Bodies & Souls exhibition we have welcomed medical and history students recently

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