Remarkable tale of pioneering wartime plastic surgeon who drove a 'Batmobile'

HISTORIAN MERVYN EDWARDS LOOKS BACK ON THE LIFE OF CITY-BORN JOHN GROCOTT, WHOSE 'FORGOTTEN' STORY OF MEDICAL INGENUITY HAS RIGHTLY RETURNED TO THE SPOTLIGHT....

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THIS week we are in Fenton, to discuss one of the town's most famous sons — though I must say, I am not sure whether the gentleman I refer to is regarded as being comprehensively famous.

I put this point to Ros Unwin, who was refreshingly honest about our man.

"I had never heard John Grocott," she says of the Fenton-born plastic surgeon, "at least not until my friend Betty Lewis told me about his work at the Infirmary during World War Two.

"She communicated that the servicemen whose faces had been devastated by bombs and burning planes in the war would come to her family home in Princes Road to wait for their outpatient appointments with Grocott and Archie McIndoe.

"I was interested, of course - even more so when she said that Archie McIndoe, now world famous for his work with Royal Air Force pilots and the Guinea Pig Club, had worked alongside Grocott in Stoke-on-Trent. I later discovered that the plastic surgery unit in Stoke-on-Trent was established in January, 1934 under the direction of Sir Harold Gillies, and was the first such unit outside London."

The question occurs, what on earth did the medical profession know about plastic surgery all those years ago?

Were practitioners merely hamfisted dilettantes working on a trial-and-error basis?

Were they disciples of Professor Bodge?

"At the outbreak of war," continues Ros, "Grocott was left in charge of the unit after receiving a fraction of the six years' training that today's plastic surgeons receive.

"Considering that he would have been dealing with horrific injuries - the likes of which he had never seen before - this young man's wartime achievements were even more remarkable."

His contribution is certainly something that Fenton can be proud of.

He was born in Heron Street in 1910 and educated at the Orme Boys' School in Newcastle and Longton High School.