The father of plastic surgery'.

Born in New Zealand, Gillies moved to England to study medicine at the University of Cambridge. He initially planned a career in otolaryngology (head and neck surgery) but, while serving with the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he specialised in treating patients with facial injuries. Gillies successfully persuaded the army authorities of the importance of specialist care in this field. A unit was set up under his command and by the end of the war some 11,000 patients had passed through his hands.

After the war Gillies worked to extend the techniques of plastic and reconstructive surgery, almost single-handedly creating the specialty of plastic surgery.

During the Second World War Gillies organised plastic surgery units in various parts of Britain. He established Rookdsown House in Basingstoke which became a leading centre in the field.

In 1945 Gillies, ever the pioneer, carried out the world's first sex change of a woman into a man.