"Medical Missionary" Sir Wilfred Grenfell Hand Written 2 Sided Note For Sale

Up for sale "Medical Missionary" Sir Wilfred Grenfell Hand Written 2 Sided 5.75X2 Note mounted. 

ES-2462C

Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, KCMG (28

February 1865 – 9 October 1940) was a medical missionary to Newfoundland. He

was born at Parkgate, Cheshire, England, on 28 February

1865, the son of Rev. Algernon Sidney Grenfell, headmaster of Mostyn House School, and

Jane Georgiana Hutchison.

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. The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen sent

Grenfell to Newfoundland in 1892

to improve the plight of coastal inhabitants and fishermen. That mission

began in earnest in 1892 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 founded to serve the local area, 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. One of the children Grenfell assisted was an Inuit girl, Kirkina, for whom he helped secure artificial limbs and later

the Grenfell Mission educated

her in nursing and midwifery. 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 rangiferi, that then spread to

native caribou herds. The reindeer herd eventually disappeared;

however, the parasite took hold and causes cerebrospinal elaphostrongylosis (CSE) in caribou, a

disease well known in reindeer in Scandinavia. In

1908, Grenfell was on his way with his dogs to a Newfoundland village for a

medical emergency when he got caught in "slob", from which he managed to get onto an ice-pan

with the dogs. He was forced to sacrifice some of his dogs to make a warm, fur

coat for himself. After drifting for several days without food or fresh water,

he was rescued by some villagers in the area. Because of this experience he

buried the dogs and put up a plaque saying, "Who gave their lives for

me." He married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan (died 1938) of Chicago, Illinois, in 1909. They had three children

and retired to Vermont after his work in

Newfoundland. 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. For his years of

service on behalf of the people of these communities he was later knighted by

the King in 1927. In 1931, Grenfell had a small speaking role in the

film, The Viking, in which he

narrated the film's prologue and gave a brief statement of the tragic

circumstances involving the film's production. During the production of the

film, which was filmed on location in Newfoundland, producer Varick Frissell felt that the film needed more action

sequences and set out on the ice floes to film them. During filming, the ship,

SS Viking on which filming was taking place, exploded killing Frissell and 27

others.