On the edge of the Trafford Park industrial zone – a major target for bombers in the Second World War – the Imperial War Museum North opened in 2002. Its distinctive structure, designed by Daniel Liebeskind, consists of shard-like projections, symbolising the fractures caused by conflict; its displays address the effects of war on the lives of service personnel and civilians around the world.

This guided tour explores Saving Lives: Frontline Medicine in a Century of Conflict, a major temporary exhibition exploring the interrelation of warfare and medicine from the First World War to the present. Learn about Major Margaret Barclay-Cooke, a nursing officer with the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, who, faced with sub-zero temperatures and basic conditions, transformed a disused operating theatre to treat patients in the immediate aftermath the Falklands War. Find out about the production and distribution of penicillin at ICI in Trafford Park, in the Second World War and about Archibald McIndoe, pioneer of surgical reconstruction methods, whose whose RAF patients became known as the ‘Guinea Pig Club’.

There is no charge for this tour. Please email tours@ichstm2013.com giving your name and the date and time of the tour.

Numbers will be limited to 20 people per tour. Please arrange your own travel to the Imperial War Museum North.

For more information about the exhibition, please see the website at www.iwm.org.uk/exhibitions/iwm-north/saving-lives or follow @I_W_M on Twitter.