Project Facade: About

• Henry Tonks
• HMS Malaya
• HMS Warspite
• Paddy Hartley
• Sir Harold Delf Gillies

Henry Tonks was based at Aldershot and later at Queens Hospital Sidcup between 1916 and 1917, where he produced surgical diagrams for Gillies and his team. He is however most famous for his series of 75 pastel sketches of the ripped and torn faces of servicemen treated at the Queen’s facility. Far from being mere visual records of the injuries surgeons were faced with repairing, Tonks was able to capture the character and despair of the injured men. Christening the series ‘the poor ruined faces of England’, Tonks refused to allow the Imperial War Museum to show the work stating that they should not be put on public display. more...

HMS Malaya was built by Armstrong Ship Builders, and launched 18th March 1915. She took part in the Battle of Jutland. and sustained eight hits, and took eight weeks for repairs. During World War Two, she was in the Mediterranean during 1940 and took part in operations against the Italian Fleet.

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One of Royal Navy’s most famous ships of the Twentieth Century, HMS Warspite served with distinction in both world wars. The Queen Elizabeth class super dreadnoughts marked the climax of the naval race between Britain and Germany since the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1905. Mounting eight 15 inch/381mm guns, the Queen Elizabeths were the first oil-fired British battleships capable of a speed of 23 knots. They possessed an almost perfect combination of gun power, armour protection and speed. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Warspite was hit 13 times after her steering gear jammed and she circled in front of the German fleet. Thanks to her excellent construction damage was not severe. more...

Over the past six years, Paddy Hartley has successfully devised, fundraised and delivered a series of highly successful Artist in Residence programs, exhibitions and educational/public engagement events. Projects include his Year of the Artist residency at The Thackray Medical Museum and West Yorkshire Playhouse funded project at The Royal Armouries, both of which took place in Leeds and received critical acclaim. These residencies included education programmes devised and delivered by Hartley for schools and young people as part of his direct approach to public engagement. He has also created and delivered numerous events for families and young people at The Victoria and Albert Museum for exhibitions such as ‘Earth and Fire’, ‘Gothic’, the forthcoming Vivienne Westwood retrospective. He is also part of the team of artists at The VandA who have delivered the ‘Museums Award’ nominated ‘Every Object Tells a Story’ I.T. event in conjunction with Ultralab and Channel 4. For the past three years Hartley has also worked as Curator of The Brahm Gallery in Leeds staging over thirty exhibitions for which he has selected artists, produced press and design material, installed work and hosted previews and charity events. He is also responsible for managing the Gallery finances and organizing payment of artists through sale of work. He continues to manage the Gallery from London but is his last year in post due to concentrating on Project Facade.

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New Zealander Sir Harold Delf Gillies is widely accepted as the Father of modern day facial reconstruction. Gillies was sent to France by the Red Cross, and found himself assisting a French-American dentist, Valadier at Wimereux, near Boulogne, Seeking further inspiration from surgeon Hippolyte Morestin at the Val-de-Grâce Military Hospital near Paris, otolaryngologist Gillies persuaded Sir Arbuthnot Lane, head of surgery for the British Army, to allow him a ward specifically for the treatment of facial injuries at the Cambridge Military Hospital, Aldershot. more...