Public-domain ebook
by Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
Language: en7,107 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Biographies·Health & Medicine
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #22372.
The work is an autobiographical memoir by Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell, a physician whose career spanned more than three decades among the deep‑sea fishermen and coastal communities of Labrador and northern Newfoundland. He opens by wrestling with the moral dilemma of self‑portraiture, insisting that truth, not fabrication, compels him to record the experiences that may benefit others. The opening pages already outline the book’s structure, early life in Cheshire, schooling, London hospital service, and a succession of chapters devoted to his various ventures in the Labrador coast, from cooperative stores to seal fisheries and even a reindeer experiment. The narrative promises a detailed chronicle of his professional and personal journey, anchored by gratitude to his wife and the many helpers who made his mission possible.
Grenfell’s voice is that of a late‑Victorian/early‑Edwardian gentleman, earnest and reflective, with a penchant for long, descriptive sentences that convey both the rugged landscape and his inner motivations. The style blends factual reportage with occasional lyrical reminiscences of childhood adventures on the Dee estuary, offering a window into the social and medical world of the turn of the twentieth century. Readers interested in the history of medicine, colonial outreach, or the cultural life of Labrador’s fishing settlements will find this memoir rewarding, as will those who appreciate a measured, historically grounded account of a life lived on the edge of civilization.
The opening · free to read
I have long been resisting the strong pressure from friends that would force me to risk having to live alongside my own autobiography. It seems still an open question whether it is advisable, or even whether it is right--seeing that it calls for confessions. In the eyes of God the only alternative is a book of lies. Moreover, sitting down to write one's own life story has always loomed up before my imagination as an admission that one was passing the post which marks the last lap; and though it was a justly celebrated physician who told us that we might profitably crawl upon the shelf at half a century, that added no attraction for me to the effort, when I passed that goal.
Thirty-two years spent in work for deep-sea fishermen, twenty-seven of which years have been passed in Labrador and northern Newfoundland, have necessarily given me some experiences which may be helpful to others. I feel that this alone justifies the writing of this story.
To the many helpers who have cooperated with me at one time or another throughout these years, I owe a debt of gratitude which will never be forgotten, though it has been impossible to mention each one by name. Without them this work could never have been.
To my wife, who was willing to leave all the best the civilized world can offer to share my life on this lonely coast, I want to dedicate this book. Truth forces me to own that it would never have come into being without her, and her greater share in the work of its production declares her courage to face the consequences.
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