Labrador Doctor

Driving dog teams through the icy heart of a northern winter, bracing against the flimsy bulkhead of a frail ship battered by storms, removing an appendix on a heaving vessel while bluebottle flies buzz overhead--hard training for a future Lieutenant-Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Such conditions were routine, however, for the pioneering doctors of Sir Wilfrid Grenfell's medical mission. Tony Paddon here recounts the story of his remarkable life--from his Labrador childhood to his time in the RCN during World War Two and his service as a Grenfell doctor operating out of St. Anthony, Newfoundland and North West River, Labrador. Vivid and emotionally powerful, Paddon's book recounts his travels throughout the region by boat, bush plane and dog team, in service of isolated and desperate patients, native and non-native alike.

The fascinating story of a determined and able man, Labrador Doctor recreates a life lived in a primitive, forbidding and astonishingly beautiful northern landscape.