Wilfred H Gardner was in London one hundred years ago today, one of the first Bloomingtonians to join in the war effort in Europe. Dr. Gardner left in March of 1915 to gain experience in eye surgery in England. He intended to stay just a few months to learn more about his field of medicine. His work in London was almost exclusively on wounded soldiers. In September he was House Surgeon at the London Opthalmic hospital. After working there, Dr. Gardner joined the American Ambulance hospital sometime before March of 1917 and was working in Paris, France. He gained valuable experience there working with the Red Cross and returned to the States to prepare medical workers here in the event the US entered the war.
During the war Dr. Watson Gailey would work on the Eastern seaboard with the Red Cross Hospitals, performing eye surgeries on injured soldiers. While Dr. Gardner moved to Los Angeles in the Twenties, Dr. Gailey stayed here to create the Gailey Eye Clinic.