Walter Yeo

A photograph of Walter Yeo in 1917, showing his face before (right) and after the tube pedicle flap reconstruction of his face (left) fully healed. Walter Ernest O'Neil Yeo (20th October 1890 – December 1960) was an English sailor in the First World War, who is thought to have been one of the first people to benefit from advanced plastic surgery, namely a skin flap.

Early life Yeo was born in Plymouth, Devon, to Petty Officer Francis Yeo and his wife Rhoda Sarah Yeo (née Jarman). He had two elder sisters, Adelaide and Elsie. Three weeks after his birth, his father was killed aboard while on route to Sierra Leone, after hitting rocks off Cape Vilan, Spain. Three of the 176 people on board survived the shipwreck. His mother was later an alemaker at the Royal William Victualling Yard.

Navy Yeo entered into the Royal Navy aged 15. As he was under 18, he was rated as a boy, second class. His sub-rating was that of bugler until 1911. His date of formally joining was 1 October 1906. He signed up for 12 years' service, and this period would only start when he turned 18. Thus the date of his adult service, and hence the start of his 12 years' service, started on his 18th birthday in 1908. He had his initial training aboard HMS Ganges (shore establishment), and first went to sea aboard in 1907, by this time a boy, first class. He was rated ordinary seaman on his 18th birthday and conducted his adult training at HMS Vivid (shore establishment 1890).

He was assigned to in 1911, and was promoted to leading seaman in 1912. After further training back at HMS Vivid I, he joined on 1 April 1915, becoming a petty officer whilst aboard on 20 May 1915. By July 1919, he was found to be fit for active service again and was recorded as having completed courses in September 1919. He underwent a further operation in August 1921, after which his disfigurement was recorded as 'improved, but still severe', and he was recommended for medical discharge, which took place on 15 December 1921. Yeo later received further treatment for a corneal ulcer at the Royal Naval Hospital in Plymouth in 1938.

Personal and later life Yeo married Ada Edwards in 1914, and had two daughters with her: Lilian Evelyn Yeo, born 21 October 1914, and Doreen Y. Yeo, born in 1919. He died in his hometown, Plymouth, where he had spent the majority of his life, in 1960 at the age of seventy.