The Best Teachers

The best teachers in life are far from being those who know most or think themselves wisest.  Show me the schoolmaster who does not love his boys and I’ll show you one who is no use.

-       Grenfell[1]

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[1] Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell was born at Parkgate, England in 1865. He entered the London Medical School in 1883. Two years later, at a tent meeting of American evangelist Dwight L. Moody, he became converted to active Christianity. In 1888 he joined the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen.  The mission made him superintendent in 1889. In 1892, at the mission’s request, he cruised the Newfoundland and Labrador coast. There he got firsthand knowledge of the over 30,000 fishermen living temporarily in this area, who outnumbered permanent residents nearly 10 to 1. These people could only get medical help once a year, when the government doctor came through. Wilfred treated 900 patients in three months, and decided the region would be a great opportunity for medical and missionary work.

Wilfred raised funds to open the first hospital at Battle Harbour in 1893. He was a forceful speaker and easily gained the friendship of influential men. His medical mission grew rapidly with hospital, orphanage and nursing stations and the first co-operatives in Newfoundland. Wilfred did not winter in the North until 1899 and spent comparatively few winters there, establishing his headquarters at St. Anthony, Newfoundland.

A prolific writer and forceful publicist, he often used artistic license in accounts of life on the northern coasts. His main financial support came from the US. In 1909 he married a Chicago heiress, Anne MacClanahan, who took him away from coastal life. Growing friction with the mission eventually led to a split, and the International Grenfell Association was incorporated in 1912. Its practical medical work of was carried on by dedicated if autocratic doctors; Wilfred became increasingly involved in fund raising. He was made KCMG in 1927, the year he retired to Vermont. He died in Vermont in 1940. Famous in his lifetime, he is now largely forgotten; his papers are in the Yale medical history library.  (Source: Terence McCartney-Filgate in The Canadian Encyclopedia)