Ve-day Mythology

[Hawkeye90]

Sapper thats amazing. As Kfz said no account can possibly be as interesting or authentic as

that of a veteran himself. Im sure you have been thanked before but I personally must

thank you for making this forum as great as it is.

[stevew]

I'll second Hawyeye's sentiments, I've been here less than a week and have read Sappers post with amazement and enjoyment...........Thanks Sapper

[sapper]

Ward one, where this Genius practiced his little miracles, was a army hospital. This genius was also, like many of his kind...Eccentric....Ward one was also the ward for the very seriously war wounded men. And Major Charnley as he was then, looked after them very well indeed.
There were some quite terrible cases there.

The major gave all his lads there the very best he could manage, He insisted that the men had a pint of beer each day, light ale or brown ale. paid for by the army....What a man! He also gathered the prettiest girls i the area to visit and talk to the men. he managed to find chocolates that were unobtainable, somehow or other for the girls to give to the men when they visited.
I was proud to be able to help the man that went on to even greater things make his equipment. But I have many tales about Sir John though I doubt that anyone is interested in things that old.
Bt the way. he got the very best convalescent home, An Elizabethan Manor that belonged to the Cunard shipping family.

Not only that, he also had the Dowager of the Cunard clan in charge, A women feared by her family. But cared for by the war wounded as a very nice person.
Lady Janet Inchcape. A wonedrful lady.
Its now "Stings" Manor House and I have been back quite a few times. For I love the old Manor House and it always makes me feel extra special welcome as soon as I enter her doors.
Sapper

[South Staffs]

Sapper, I would love to hear a few tales about a man like that......

[Slipdigit]

Sapper,

You were operated on by Charnley? In my surgery nursing days, we used tools and implants that had lineage to his work. We knew the name well still used a tool we called a "Charnley", although we did not use the Charnley implants.

Thanks for your service.

[sapper]

Sure was Jeff.
Charnley was just as I described him.. A genius. I owe the years that I had since 1945 to him. His Wife, Lady Jill Charnley sent me a book on his life. It describes in detail his achievements. Quite wonderful really.

As a tribute to a man that gave hope and healing to countless men and women savagely wounded in 1944, and to many hundreds that benefited from his knowledge. I have posted the following information rather long ..But make of it what you will.

Search for a Genius.
A Debt of Honour.

Many of us have debts of Honour, debts that we shall never be able to fulfill, most of mine relate to the time that I spent in hospital and especially to those who looked after me and showed me such kindness and care. A need that I have never been able to satisfy. But above all, and for many years, I have wanted to say thank you to the man who got me back on my feet where all others had failed. Genius, he was just that, a Genius. Major Charnley. or Sir John Charnley. The man who brought comfort to thousands with his invention of the replaceable hip joint that is so common to day. It may have been because I helped him with his surgical contraptions, or perhaps, because of the wonderful bone grafting surgery that he performed on me and had given me such an improved life style, whatever, you may recall that he asked me to go back and see him and I described this earlier. With all of that in mind, and not having seen him since tea in his quarters back in 1945 I decided to try and find him.
After leaving Hospital I found the going very hard and difficult, but at the back of my mind remained this need to say thanks, thanks for the years that you gave me, and for the quality of life that I would never have had without his help. Having embarked on this search and as time was racing, the need to find him became urgent. Where do we start? Well! I started by asking my Poole Hospital consultant Dr Lee-Potter he ought to know, he was Chairman of the BMA. No, he could not help, but he did point me in another directions, none of these were fruitful, eventually, I got in touch with Dorset County Library, the gentleman there listened to my story and said. "Leave it with me and I will search through all that we have, as and when we can" Some time went by then I received a telephone call. "We have found your man, but I am afraid it was found in an area known as (who was who) containing the obituaries of famous people who had died in recent years" " I will photo copy them and post them on to you" Reading his Honours it now became even clearer just how fortunate I had been to come under the care of Sir John Charnley back in the war time days. Inventor of the Charnley Prosthesis, his Honours became legendary.
Honours
1970 Companion of the Order of the British Empire
1974 Freeman of the Borough of Bury.
1975 Fellow of the Royal Society
1977 Knight Batchelor
1977 Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Honorary Degrees and Fellowships
1972 Honorary Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
1976 Honorary MD university of Liverpool
1977 Honorary MD University of Upsalla, Sweden
1978 Honorary DSc University of Leeds
1978 Honorary MD Queens University Belfast
1978 Honorary Fellow, American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgeons
1980 Honorary DSc University of Hull
1981 Honorary Fellow, British Orthopeadic Association
Medal, Prizes, and Special lectures.
1969 Olaf Af Acrel medal of the Swedish Surgical Society
1971 Prix Mondial Nessim habif of the University of Geneva
1971 Gold medal of the Society of Apothecaries of London
1971 Lawrence Poole Prize of the University of Edinburgh
1972 Cecil Joll Prize, Royal College of Surgeons of England
1973 Wade Professor, Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh
1973 Gairdiner foundation Award Canada
1974 Albert Lasker Medical Research Award
1975 Cameron Prize University of Edinburgh
1975 Lister medal and Oration, Royal College of Surgeons of England
1975 John Scott Prize, City of Philadelphia
1976 Robert Jones lecturer British Orthopeadic Association
1976 Prince Philip Gold medal Award of the plastics and rubber Institute
1976 Prize Buccheri La Ferla
1978 Albert Medal, Royal Society of Arts
1981 Harding Award Action Research for the Crippled Child
1981 Faltin Lecture Helsinki
1981 Bruce lecture Toronto.
Member of the American, Belgian, Brazilian, Canadian, Finnish, French, and Scandinavian Orthopeadic Associations.
Coupled with several books and numerous reports on Orthopeadics.
Unfortunately, he died on the 5th of August 1982. As you will have noticed by now, a true Genius. Armed with this knowledge, I now tried to trace his successors without any luck until I wrote to the Chief executive of Bury , who promptly sent the letter to Wrightington Hospital, eventually it was forwarded to Lady Charnley, his widow who sat down and wrote me the nicest letter a man could wish to receive. In her letter, she told me that she had many letters from former patients who had benefited from her late husbands genius, she also told me that she had instructed her publishers to send me an Autobiography of Sir Johns Life. This duly turned up and was signed with her best wishes.
I remember Sir John as a man who always spoke his mind and did not stand fools gladly, he also looked incredibly young, at the age of 37 he was refused a drink in a public house because the barmaid thought him under age, and that was on his way home from giving a lecture to the worlds Surgeons. Something that left him boiling with rage. When I first met him he was 33 and was short in stature with fair hair and looked like a Junior medical orderly, helping out, apart from the Majors pips on his shoulders. When nobody was listening he used to swear quite a bit. But! in a well spoken and beautiful modulated voice. The staff at the Hospital idolized him, they recognized something special about this man and he could do no wrong. I am sure that had I found him earlier he would have remembered the young man who helped him with apparatus in those far off days. Later in 1946 he had another Surgeon operate on his perfectly healthy leg to remove a piece of bone and graft it back on again, just like the operation that he had performed on me, it turned septic and took a long time to heal.
Sapper

[Slipdigit]

It's a shame that often it takes a war to advance medical care. So much unnecessary suffering to benefit those later.

When I started in nursing (1987) we were still sometimes using Schneider Nails to set mid-shaft femur fractures. They were developed by a German physician in the war named Schneider, who used them to treat Luftwaffe pilots who had been injured in crashes. Before this, that type of fracture meant about 6 weeks strung up in traction and all the debilliating effects of bed-bound inactivity. With the nail, the person was up and walking with crutches in a day or two, but not putting weight on the affected leg.