Page opposite: Charles Valadier’s 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (above) and WWI stretcher bearers (below). Left: facial reconstruction after war wound at the Somme in 1916.


the use of massive artillery bombardment exposed the head and face to horrific injuries from gunshot wounds and shrapnel. Tis forced pioneering advances in plastic and reconstructive surgery and Valadier and Gillies were among surgeons at the forefront. Gillies later wrote of his first encounter


with Valadier and the famous 1913 Silver Ghost: “In Boulogne there was a great fat man with sandy hair and a florid face, who had equipped his Rolls-Royce with dental chair, drills and the necessary heavy metals. Te name of this man whose high brown riding boots carried equal polish to the glitter of his spurs was Charles Valadier. He toured about until he had filled with gold all the remaining teeth in British GHQ. With Generals strapped in his chair, he convinced them of the need of a plastic and jaw unit, and one was set up nearby in the lovely little town of Wimereux. I was invited by Valadier to accompany him to assist in his initial incision.” Certainly this must be one of the first


Many of his ideas later proved surgically


sound, according to dental surgeon and historian J E McAuley. Valadier recognised the importance of closing facial wounds as soon as possible to avoid retraction in lacerated flaps. To combat infection – a major cause of mortality in WWI – he devised a mobile apparatus for irrigating wounds that was pressured by a bicycle pump and known on the wards as the “fire engine”. In 1917 he published a report on his methods based on


practice – though the gambling continued and he died impoverished in 1931. One legacy that Valadier can claim a part


“ There was a great fat man who had equipped his Rolls-Royce with dental chair, drills and the necessary metals.”


the treatment of more than 1,000 cases. Towards the end of the war Valadier’s


examples of a motorised mobile dental unit. Later in 1916 the first fully equipped mobile dental laboratory was kitted out in a modified ambulance and deployed by the army in France. Tis meant that soldiers could be treated in the field without having to be returned to a casualty clearing station. Eventually each of the five armies in France had similar mobile units. Valadier ran the facial trauma unit in


Boulonge over the course of the war. British authorities gave him a free hand at first and he equipped the unit largely at his own expense employing technicians in Paris to construct the dental appliances needed in treating jaw fractures.


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surgical activities were curtailed – given his “lesser professional status” – and the unit at Wimereux became more a clearing station with complicated cases being transferred to a unit run by Gillies at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. Another ENT surgeon performed emergency procedures with Valadier assisting. Te French-American seemed to alienate quite a few of his contemporaries. Just aſter Armistice the unit was closed down and Valadier leſt to salvage his own equipment.


Postscript Valadier was later recognised by Britain for his contributions to the war effort and aſter being granted a certificate of naturalisation he was awarded a knighthood in 1921. He returned to his successful Paris practice and lived extravagantly, indulging a weakness for gambling. Later he developed a blood disease, possibly leukaemia, and had to retire from


of was the recognition of the serious wastage of fit soldiers through lack of proper dental care as highlighted during World War One. Tis led to the formation of the Army Dental Corps in January 1921. It was later granted the Royal prefix in 1946 and the RADC today is responsible for the maintenance of dental health among personnel serving throughout the world. What about the Silver Ghost?


Valadier sold the automobile aſter the war and towards the end of the 1920s it was converted into a breakdown vehicle, complete with jib crane at the rear. It continued in use as a recovery vehicle until around 1948 when the


magneto burnt out. Fortunately it was bought and carefully restored in the 1960s and ended up in private ownership – later being rallied extensively throughout Britain and Europe in subsequent years. May it last another hundred.


n Jim Killgore is editor of Summons


Main sources McAuley J E. Charles Valadier:A Forgotten Pioneer in the Treatment of Jaw Injuries. Proc. Royal Society of Medicine. Volume 67 August 1974


Dentistry During WW1. http://www.vlib.us/medical/ dentistry.htm


Palmer P J. Haig’s toothache - Dentistry in the BEF 1914- 18. The Western Front Association. 2009. http://tinyurl. com/n9ep8hz


RADC History. Army Medical Services Museum. http:// www.ams-museum.org.uk/museum/history/radc-history/


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