Years later, Spreckley's physical scars were barely visible.
His daughter Elizabeth Gregory said: "What Gillies did for him was absolutely astonishing."
Spreckley was hugely grateful to Gillies and even named his son Michael Gillies in his honour.
Nevertheless, he was psychologically scarred, and his grand-daughter Alexandra Kingman says: "He must have felt like a freak when it happened. All his life he still thought he looked hideous."