Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell is one of Canada’s most romantic heroes of the north. He was of an era when Victorian missionaries flung themselves into the far corners of the globe to bring civilization to the real or imagined uncivilized. Grenfell, motivated by both his religious and medical influences, brought to the coastal communities of Newfoundland, Labrador, and Quebec, a new degree of health care.

Born February 28, 1865 at Parkgate, Cheshire, England, Wilfred Grenfell received his medical education at Oxford University and London Hospital School. Converted to active Christianity in 1885 by Dwight L. Moody, an American evangelist, Grenfell practised his social gospel when he was fisherman’s doctor in the North Sea in 1886. The National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen made Grenfell a superintendent in 1889, and after an urgent call to visit Newfoundland in 1892, he returned to England where he pleaded passionately for funds to aid thousands of seasonal cod fishermen, over 3,000 permanent settlers, and the native people living on the coast who had been serviced only by one government doctor on an annual visit from the Newfoundland colony.
 

Grenfell chose the rugged shoreland of Newfoundland and Labrador to serve humanity. Here, the medical missionary established schools, cooperatives, hospitals, nursing stations, and an orphanage to accommodate the immense needs of isolated communities located in bleak surroundings and harsh climate. [From Forty Years from Labrador, 1932]

The first mission flag was planted at Battle Harbour on the eastern tip of Labrador at the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle in 1893. Hospitals, orphanages, schools, nursing stations, industrial centres, agricultural stations, and cooperative stores soon followed at other locations in Quebec, Labrador, and at his eventual headquarters at St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Facilities included a marine slip at St. Anthony to repair mission boats and fishing vessels, and a hospital ship used for annual cruises on the coast. There was also support of local handicraft business. The cooperatives helped break an economic dependence on unscrupulous merchants; the social clubs he promoted contributed to a sense of community and self-help.

As a widely read author and skilled lecturer, Grenfell brought attention and money to his mission. In 1909 he married the Chicago heiress, Ann MacClanahan, and a great deal of his support came from the United States. The International Grenfell Association was incorporated in 1912 as an umbrella of organizations in St. John’s, Newfoundland; London, England; New York and Boston in the United States and the Grenfell Labrador Medical Mission of Canada. Also in 1912 Grenfell opened the King George V Institute in St. John’s. Through hard work, courage, devotion, and a sense of mission for which the late Victorians were justly famous, Grenfell brought international attention to the plight of the cod fisherman.
 

First hospital established and built by Wilfred Grenfell was located at Battle Harbour, at the southern tip of Labrador, in 1893. Fire destroyed the mission in 1931. Stereograph depicts Dr. Grenfell leading a prayer meeting at Battle Harbour, circa 1895. [Photo, courtesy Charles J. Humber Collection]

Medical missionary, master mariner, and author, Wilfred Grenfell retired from active work in Labrador in 1927 and was living in Vermont still actively promoting his mission when he died on October 9, 1940. When Newfoundland joined the Canadian confederation in 1949, various segments of Grenfell’s institutions were absorbed by government bodies, especially with the introduction of the Canada Health Act.

Peeling away the social mission behind the Grenfell effort, one finds a concerned medical man seeking practical means for providing a minimum level of health care on a rugged, isolated coastline. He was part of the advance force of authoritarian regenerators as represented by missions, police detachments, medical stations, and government agencies focusing on recognizing and assuming responsibility for the remote corners of Canada’s North. Grenfell will be remembered as a pioneer in medical outreach, and for his delivery of vital services to remote regions of the far North. His personal papers are located at Yale University.

Larry Turner