This brief overview describes how Whitby received his life-saving blood transfusion in 1918. The surgery to remove his right leg after he was severely wounded at the Somme was carried out by Gordon Gordon-Taylor, a surgeon from the Middlesex Hospital, where Lionel would later complete his medical training and forge his career as a bacteriologist. It refers to the outbreak of the Second World War, when he was 'entrusted with the creation and development of the Transfusion Service to supply the whole British Army', assisted by his wife, and the subsequent development of the service.

Included in archive exhibition on Sir Lionel Whitby, 2019-2022, Downing College.