James Johnston’s Biography of Grenfell of Labrador

I am pleased be able to upload James Johnston’s 1908 biography of Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the noted missionary to Labrador. My thanks to Redcliffe College for providing me with a copy of the book to scan. This volume is in the Public Domain.

James Johnston [1819-1905], Grenfell of Labrador. London: S.W. Partridge & Co. Ltd., n.d. Hbk. pp.192. [Click to download complete book in PDF]

Contents

Introductory Note

1. Dr. Grenfell’s Ancestry and Early History
2. The Labrador Peninsula
3. Eskimo Race and Customs
4. Pioneering Enterprise
5. The Fisher Folk of Labrador
6. Romantic Sea Voyages
7. Simple Life·Stories and Tragedies
8. Dr. Grenfell and Little Children
9. Salvation By Reindeer
10. Achievement and Expansion
11. Grenfell and Moody
12. Literary Activities and Deputation Visits
13. Honours and the Man

Preface

I have much pleasure in acceding to the Author’s request that I should write a few lines by way of to his Life of Dr. Grenfell.

It is twenty years since Dr. Grenfell was appointed Superintendent of the work being carried on by the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen in the North Sea and elsewhere round the shores of the British Isles, and from the day he gave himself to the cause of the fishermen his life may be said to have been one long, ceaseless effort to uplift and help the men whose lot he has made his own, and whose perils and hardships he has ever since been sharing.

The Labrador Branch of the Society’s work now claims Dr. Grenfell’s undivided attention, and from June to November he is engaged in cruising about in the little hospital steamer “Strathcona” between the Straits of Belle Isle and Cape Chidley for the purpose of carrying healing and comfort to the dwellers upon those inhospitable, ice-bound shores. In winter he prosecutes the same kind of work with komatik and dog teams. It is the great love he bears these brave men of the North, and his large-hearted sympathy with the stress and hardship of their lives, which leads him to endure for their sake what to most men, reared under similar circumstances, would prove an altogether insupportable existence. [Continue reading]