Rolls-Royce – Frontline dental surgery

A Rolls-Royce used as a mobile dental surgery during the First World War will join the impressive line-up of motor cars at this year’s Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed Sale on Friday 12th July.

The 1913 Rolls-Royce 45/50hp ‘Silver Ghost’ London-to-Edinburgh Tourer (estimate £600,000 - £800,000) was bought by a wealthy Englishman for £1,016 (approximately £100,000 in today’s money) in September 1913, before passing to its second owner Auguste Charles Valadier in October 1915. A wealthy French-American living in Paris, Valadier would become instrumental in pioneering the development of maxillofacial re-constructive surgery to treat service personnel injured during The Great War.

On the outbreak of hostilities in 1914 Valadier had been keen to help the war effort in some way. He volunteered his services to the British Red Cross Society in Paris, who accepted him for duty in October that year.

Valadier established the first unit dedicated to the treatment of facial injuries, which helped facilitate the later progress of plastic surgery for use in facial reconstruction.