Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell: Medical Pioneer in Newfoundland and Labrador

Stamp Vignettes focus on biographical details and accomplishments related to science and medicine, and not individual views and prejudices except where they had a major impact on the subject's life. The authors do not intend to imply any endorsement of such views when discussing a Stamp Vignette on Medical Science. Stamp Vignettes focus on biographical details and accomplishments related to science and medicine, and not individual views and prejudices except where they had a major impact on the subject's life. The authors do not intend to imply any endorsement of such views when discussing a Stamp Vignette on Medical Science. Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was born in the village of Parkgate in Cheshire, England, on February 28, 1865, the second of 4 brothers. His father, Reverend Algernon Sidney Grenfell (1836-1887), served for many years as headmaster of Mostyn House School in Parkgate, a private boy's school that Wilfred attended for a few years before going on to Marlborough School in Wiltshire in 1879 at age 14. Mostyn House School was run by the Grenfell family from 1862 until its closure in 2010. Wilfred's older brother Algernon succeeded his father as headmaster and instituted several educational reforms during his 40-year tenure. Wilfred's mother, Jane Hutchinson (1832-1921), was the daughter of a British military engineer, and was born in Cossipore (now Kashipur), part of Kolkata, India. Wilfred counted 48 cousins in the British armed forces, and he planned an army or church career before a discussion with a village doctor in 1883, which prompted him to pursue medicine instead. View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT) In February 1883, Wilfred moved to London to study at the London Hospital Medical College, where he was an indifferent student. However, he was a keen athlete, spending much of his time on cricket, rugby, boxing, rowing, and operating a gymnasium and Sunday School out of his home. He also played rugby for Richmond Football Club (a real club, but not the inspiration for the fictional AFC Richmond in the Ted Lasso television series). He obtained a license in early 1888 from the Royal College of Physicians and membership in the Royal College of Surgeons, but he failed the Bachelor of Medicine exam set by University College of London. While a medical student in London, Grenfell was strongly influenced by surgeon Sir Frederick Treves (1853-1923). Dr Treves was noted for saving the life of King Edward VII when the king developed typhlitis just before his coronation in 1902, as well as for his friendship with "Elephant Man" Joseph Merrick (1862-1890), who spent the last 4 years of his life in London Hospital cared for by Dr Treves. Grenfell was also inspired by a tent religious revival sermon of traveling American evangelist Dwight Moody (1837-1899) and dedicated his life to practical Christian service. Grenfell and his mentor Dr Treves both enjoyed sailing and the sea. Treves suggested that Grenfell should join a new charitable organization called the National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen (later renamed the Fishermen's Mission), which had been founded by Ebenezer Joseph Mather (1849-1927) in 1881. Grenfell was appointed as the mission's superintendent at the surprisingly young age of 24 in 1889. He first served as a surgeon on a hospital ship serving North Sea fisheries, which allowed him both to be of service to others and to indulge his inclination for adventure and physical activity. In 1892, the mission sent Grenfell to investigate conditions in coastal fishing villages in Labrador. Grenfell traveled up and down the coast in a hospital ship and became deeply concerned by both the lack of access to medical care and the poor living conditions in coastal fishing villages. He saw settlements that had been entirely destroyed by epidemics of diphtheria. He began to recruit physicians and nurses and set up a network of cottage hospitals and nursing stations along the Labrador coast; the first 2 were founded at Battle Harbour in 1893 and Indian Harbour in 1894. In 1901, the Mission opened a year-round hospital at St. Anthony on Newfoundland's remote Northern Peninsula, near the 10th century Norse/Viking landing site of L'anse aux Meadows. The St. Anthony community became the regional headquarters for Grenfell's efforts. On Easter weekend 1908, while travelling by dogsled to operate on a sick boy in rural Newfoundland, Grenfell drifted out to sea on a slab of ice and soon realized his life was in peril. Unfortunately, he had to kill the dogs to survive. After he was rescued by a passing ship, he set up a memorial to the dogs. He frequently retold this dramatic tale in lectures and published the story as a book, Adrift on an Ice-Pan. In 1912, the Fishermen's Mission no longer felt it could support Grenfell's efforts, since the scope of Grenfell's ambition in Newfoundland and Labrador exceeded what the mission's board was comfortable with. Grenfell had been funding his work largely on his own with proceeds from speaking tours (he was a popular and skilled lecturer) and royalties from a succession of books he published about life in Labrador and a number of religious topics. In 1914, Grenfell founded the International Grenfell Association (IGA) to continue his work. The IGA still exists and supports not-for-profit organizations that improve the health and social welfare in the region, although all facilities were turned over to the Newfoundland and Labrador government by 1981. Until 1979, hundreds of First Nations, Inuit, and other Indigenous children in Labrador were separated from their families and taken to residential schools run by the IGA or by Moravian missionaries. In addition to the loss of family and cultural connections, many of these children later reported that they were abused physically or sexually during their time at the schools. In 2017, Canadian Premier Minister Justin Trudeau apologized on behalf of the nation for how the children were treated at the schools, and approximately 1000 victims received a 50 million settlement from the Canadian government. In 1909, Grenfell married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan (1884-1938) who was from suburban Chicago. They met aboard the RMS Mauretania when he was returning from a fundraising trip to England. She was en route home from a 3-year world tour after graduating from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. Anne managed many of the administrative affairs for the Grenfell mission in St. Anthony and was an active participant in health and welfare work. The couple had 3 children. Grenfell was knighted by King George V in 1927 and received numerous honorary degrees, including one from the University of Oxford (1907) where he had spent one term playing rugby in the late 1880s. In 1931, Grenfell narrated part of an adventure film called The Viking. He described how the sealing ship SS Viking exploded during the making of the film, killing 25 crew including the movie's producer. Until a tragic fire in a studio in India during the 1989 filming of The Sword of Tipu Sultan, this represented the largest number of lives lost during production of a single motion picture. Grenfell retired to the small village of Charlotte, Vermont, in 1932, and spent winters on St. Simons Island, Georgia. At the time of his retirement, the IGA operated 6 hospitals, 4 hospital ships, 7 nursing stations, 2 schools, and 2 orphanages, as well as 14 cooperative industrial centers and a lumber mill providing employment for the local population. With his health declining, Grenfell resigned from the IGA in 1936, and he died in Vermont on October 9, 1940, from a myocardial infarction following a croquet match. His ashes were brought to St. Anthony in Newfoundland, to be scattered on a rock face on which he had scattered his wife Anne's ashes 2 years earlier. A memorial plaque there gives only his name, dates of birth and death, and the inscription: "Life is a Field of Honour. " The former Grenfell home in St. Anthony is now operated as a museum by a non-profit historical society. Grenfell Campus of the Memorial University of Newfoundland is named in his honor. In 1997, Grenfell was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Wilfred Grenfell was honored philatelically by Newfoundland in 1941 (Scott 252) and by Canada (Scott 438) in 1965 (Figure 1). Figure 2 is a first day cover of the Canadian stamp, mailed from Ottawa on the initial day of postal usage in June 1965. Newfoundland and Labrador had been a separate British colony and later a Dominion during Grenfell's life. Residents voted to join Canada in 1949. The authors report no competing interests.