Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, KCMG (28 Feb 1865 – 9 Oct 1940) was a medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador.
He was born at Parkgate, Wirral, England, the son of Algernon Grenfell, headmaster of Mostyn House School, and Jane Georgiana Hutchison and married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan of Chicago, Illinois, in 1909. She died in 1938. They had three children and retired to Vermont after his work in Newfoundland.
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Grenfell moved to London in 1882. He then commenced the study of medicine at the London Hospital Medical College (now part of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry) under the tutelage of Sir Frederick Treves: he graduated in 1888. His immediate family came from Rugby, Warwickshire.
The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen sent Grenfell to Newfoundland in 1892 to improve the plight of coastal inhabitants and fishermen.[1] That mission began in earnest in 1893 when he recruited two nurses and two doctors for hospitals at Indian Harbour, Newfoundland and later opened cottage hospitals along the coast of Labrador. The mission expanded greatly from its initial mandate to one of developing schools, an orphanage, cooperatives, industrial work projects, and social work. Although originally founded to serve the local fishermen the mission developed to include the aboriginal peoples and settlers along the coasts of Labrador and the eastern side of the Great Northern Peninsula of northern Newfoundland. For his years of service on behalf of the people of these communities he was later knighted. He had two sons and a daughter. Grenfell died of a coronary thrombosis at Kinloch House on 9 October 1940, and his ashes were brought to St Anthony, where they were placed inside a rock face overlooking the harbour.
In 1907 Grenfell imported a group of 300 reindeer from Norway to provide food and serve as draft animals in Newfoundland. Unbeknownst to him, some of the animals carried a parasitic roundworm, Elaphostrongylus rangiferi, that then spread to native caribou herds. The reindeer herd eventually disappeared, however, the parasite took hold and causes cerebrospinal elaphostronglyosis (CSE) in caribou, a disease well known in reindeer in Scandinavia.[2]
By 1914 the mission had gained international status. In order to manage its property and affairs, the International Grenfell Association, a non-profit mission society, was founded to support Grenfell's work. The Association operated, until 1981, as an NGO. It had responsibility for delivery of healthcare and social services in northern Newfoundland and Labrador. After 1981 a governmental agency, The Grenfell Regional Health Services Board, took over the operational responsibility. The International Grenfell Association, having divested itself of all properties and operational responsibility for health and social services, boarding schools, hospitals then became a supporting association making grants and funding scholarships for medical training.
The Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell Historical Society was formed in 1978. The society purchased Grenfell's home in St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador. The home has been restored as a museum and archives. The Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell Historical Society with the support of Provincial Government and the International Grenfell Association began construction of an interpretation centre in St. Antony and it was opened in 1997. This facility added to the existing house and serves to promote the legacy to thousands of visitors each year. The Grenfell Interpretation Centre also is used by other organizations for meetings and events. A large interpretive display is housed there and provides historical background surrounding the work of Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell.
A unique figure, Grenfell served to inspire at least two characters in Canadian literature: Dr. Luke in Norman Duncan's Doctor Luke of the Labrador (1904) and Dr. Tocsin in White Eskimo by Harold Horwood (1972).
A biography for children (middle-high school) was written in 1942, by Genevieve Fox. Published by Thomas Y Crowell Company. The book had second and third printings as well.
He is ascribed with the quote:
"The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and serve.' There can be no other meaning."
Grenfell named the 600 thread-per-inch woven Egyptian cotton material 'Grenfell Cloth' created for him by Walter Haythornthwaite.[3]
Grenfell is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on October 9
In 1979, the Corner Brook campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland was renamed Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in his honour. In 2010, following a debate to rename this campus, the name Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland was chosen, to reflect the campus' ties to the spirit of Sir Wilfred Grenfell's legacy.
Joyce Reason, Deep-Sea Doctor: Wilfred Grenfell. London: Edinburgh House Press, 1940
Ronald Rompkey, "Grenfell of Labrador: A Biography". Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991
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| Preceded by Fridtjof Nansen |
Rector of the University of St Andrews 1928 - 1931 |
Succeeded by Field Marshal Jan Smuts |