The Street of Crocodiles

Henry Lumley was a pilot during World War One who suffered extensive facial injuries in a plane crash. Harold Gillies, a plastic surgeon, attempted to treat his disfigurement, but Lumley unfortunately did not survive the procedures meant to restore his face. He died of infection shortly after an operation to graft skin from his chest onto his face. 

“Look at this letter from my wife on February 25. It has been censored again; whole paragraphs cut out. Why can’t they, if she has written too many words, subtract the words from the next letter? Or ask her not to write so much? I understand there are hundreds of letters which come to me. I never see them. They are destroyed. I think they should be saved for me so I can at least write and thank these good people if and when I am ever released. They are addressed to me and should be mine. Last night the Russian warder came in and saw my wife’s [birthday] flowers behind the bars of the windows. He took them away because ‘they were against regulations.’ Why can’t I have my flowers?”