Northern Nurse

Melvin Baker is an archivist and historian at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, and the co-editor of Dictionary of Newfoundland and
Labrador Biography.

The medical missionary work of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, from the 1890s to
the 1930s, attracted to Labrador many summer volunteers known as WOPS
(Workers Without Pay). One WOP, Elliott Merrick, fell in love with an
Australian nurse, Kate Austen, who worked for the International Grenfell
Association in Labrador from the late 1920s to 1931. Originally
published in 1942, Northern Nurse is the elegantly told story of her
life and work in Labrador. Austen had many adventures, including a
journey to patients via dogsled in a blinding snowstorm. The author also
provides fascinating insights into the social interactions between the
Innu and the white fishers/trappers (or settlers) of the Hamilton Inlet
area.

For anyone interested in the settlement of Labrador or in public-health
services in pre-Confederation Labrador, this superb book is a must.