Albert Ross Tilley

A. Ross Tilley was a Canadian plastic surgeon who pioneered the treatment of burned airmen during the Second World War. He was born in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada in 1904. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1929 and opened a private practice in Toronto in 1935. He was one of the first physicians in Canada to train in plastic surgery. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Medical Branch at the start of the war and became the Principal Medical Officer in 1941. He worked at the Queen Victoria Hospital with Archibald McIndoe, where they treated the burned airmen who called themselves the Guinea Pig Club. He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944 and discharged from the RCAF with the rank of Group Captain in 1945. After the war, he returned to his practice in Toronto and Kingston, Ontario, where he was an assistant professor of surgery and the first to teach plastic surgery at Queen's University. He was a charter member and a past president of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons. He was also a member of the Order of Canada, an honorary member of the Canadian Medical Association, and an inductee of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. He envisioned an adult burn treatment centre in the Toronto area and launched an intensive campaign that led to the building of the original burn centre in The Wellesley Hospital, which was named in his honour. He died in 1988 and was buried in New York. He was honored by the Sri Lankan government with a commemorative stamp in 1993 and by the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 2018.