Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason (1865–1940)

English physician and missionary. His pioneering work in Labrador greatly improved the lot of the local fishermen. He built hospitals, nursing stations, orphanages, schools, and stores. He owned and operated steamships in connection with his various hospitals, and was himself surgeon-in-chief and master of a hospital steamship that cruised the coasts of Labrador. In 1912 he opened the King George V Seamen's Institute.

Among his numerous works are Vikings of Today (1895), The Harvest of the Sea (1905), Labrador: the Country and its People (1909), Autobiography of a Labrador Doctor (1919), Labrador Looks at the Orient (1928), and The Romance of Labrador (1934). In 1920 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the National Academy of Social Science of America, and in 1930 the Livingstone Gold Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

Born in Parkgate, Cheshire, he was educated at Marlborough and Oxford, and studied medicine at the London Hospital. His first visit to Labrador began with a cruise as medical missionary with the Royal National Mission for Deep Sea Fishermen, and in 1892 he returned as permanent medical missionary. His schemes for the development of Labrador grew far beyond the means of the mission, so he organized lecturing tours in Britain, Canada, and the USA, until eventually, largely with American support, the International Grenfell Association was founded with an endowment of over £200,000. He was knighted in 1927.