An airman who helped shape the future of plastic surgery after suffering horrific World War II burns has died.
Bill Foxley provided inspiration for the millions of people who suffer disfigurement through burns.
Mr Foxley was admitted to Queen Victoria Hospital at East Grinstead in March 1944 with horrific burns to his hands and face after he heroically went back into a blazing aircraft to save his friends.
The fire destroyed all the skin, muscle and cartilage up to his eyebrows. He had lost his right eye and the cornea of the remaining eye was scarred, leaving him with heavily impaired vision.
However Mr Foxley was to become a crucial human guinea pig when he came under the care of Sir Archibald McIndoe, the pioneering plastic surgeon based in East Grinstead.
Over the next three and a half years he underwent almost 30 operations to rebuild his face, including procedures to give him a new nose.
He finally left hospital in December 1947 though he was rarely free from pain for the rest of his life and his injuries meant he was unable to smile or communicate emotions.
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