Following last week's feature about First World War plastic surgeon Dr Harold Gillies, relatives of one of his most famous patients got in touch. 

Reporter KELLY SMALE finds out more about the man whose nose was saved by a bone from his own rib.

WILLIAM Spreckley was one of Dr Gillies’ greatest successes after he lost his entire nose during the Battle of Ypres in Belgium.


The 23-year-old enlisted in the army as soon as war broke out but returned to England in January 1917 after he was injured by a gun shot.


He was treated at Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot before being transferred to Sidcup's Queen Mary's hospital - then known as Queens Hospital - where he remained until being discharged in October 1920.
 

Mr Spreckley's granddaughter, Ally White, saw last week's story and contacted the newsdesk.


The mother-of-two told News Shopper: "Part of his face was blown away and he had a severe foot injury too.
 

"He told his children he was injured when there was fierce gun fire while the battalion was being relieved from the trenches."


Dr Gillies took a piece of bone from Mr Spreckley's rib cage, shaped it and implanted it into his forehead.
 

During this procedure the lining of the nose was grown in the forehead which was the first time this had ever been attempted - and it was successful.
 

After six months the new nose was brought down over the nasal cavity and sewn into place, leaving the skin attached at the eyebrows which formed the blood supply.


Before the war started Mr Spreckley had been in Germany for a year learning about the lace trade as technology was advanced there.
 

He made his way back home with difficulty as his German was so good it was thought he was a young German trying to avoid fighting for his country.


After recovering from his injury he was unable to go back to the declining lace trade and took on any jobs he could find.
 

Mr Spreckley moved to Nottingham and married his wife Eileen Donoghue in January 1921.


They had eight children, four girls and four boys, and named their first child Michael Gillies after the pioneering plastic surgeon.


Mrs White, from Derby, said: "Times were quite hard, the social conditions after the First World War were difficult.


"When the Second World War came he enlisted again straight away.


"He went to France but came back and was sent to the Middle East."
 

The 52-year-old added: "It was the only time he had a problem with his nose.


"He came back in 1942 after eight months because he couldn't go out or do anything because the sand from the desert irritated his nose."
 

Mr Spreckley became an officer at a prisoner of war camp in Wiltshire. While on duty in 1944 a group of prisoners escaped but came back of their own free will.
 

From 1946 to 1950 he was in Vienna as part of the peace-keeping force.


Mrs White said: "He always told us he looked funny because of his nose.
"He said while he was in Vienna women would run and hide from him because he was ugly.
 

"He was a really young man when the injury happened so it would have distorted the way he felt about himself."
 

The grandfather-of-38 retired from the army aged 57 in 1950 and died when he was 80 from cancer of the oesophagus.