Former airmen who became members of what’s known as the ‘Guinea Pig Club’ will meet at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington today to mark its 75th anniversary.
Members, mostly Battle of Britain pilots with severe burns, became surgical ‘guinea pigs’ of pioneering plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe. Membership grew in number to a total 649 of Allied airmen with 80% of its members having served in Bomber Command by the end of the war.