Dr Norman Bethune Memorial House, Gravenhurst, Ontario

  Scott Davidson, manager of the Dr. Norman Bethune Memorial House Historic Site located in Gravenhurst.  Thissite is a very popular stop for visitors from China, 30 % of all visitors  and double that for the Toronto born Chinese community. When the fall colours are in full bloom here in Muskoka, “the Bethune Memorial  Site “ receives 1000 visitors per day. Over the last 10 years the average visitor number has been 10,500; now the tourism advisors suggest that there will be an increase up to 13,000 per year in the future. Scott told us on the expansion a new reception center that he has finished recently with the idea of the expected increases of Chinese visitors for the future.

I must say that I personally know little about Norman Bethune and his work and why he is so famous to the Chinese people; here is a review of Norman’s life, of which Scott touched on as he presented a most interesting talk last Wednesday. Tamara de la Vega thanked Scott of behalf of the club.

Dr. Norman Bethune is best known as a hero in the People's Republic of China and for his impact on Sino-Canadian relations. But he also gained a reputation in his native Canada as a gifted surgeon, an inventor, a political activist and an early proponent of a universal health care system.

Norman Bethune was born in 1890 in Gravenhurst, Ontario, north of Toronto. He was the son of a clergyman but chose to follow in his grandfather's footsteps and become a surgeon. He studied at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine but, in 1911, he interrupted his studies to work for a year as a labourer-teacher with Frontier College.

Wartime At the outbreak of the First World War, Bethune joined the N0.2 Field Ambulance Medical Corps and sailed for France in February 1915. He was working as a stretcher-bearer in Ypres, Belgium, when a shrapnel shell exploded close to him and pieces of it pierced his leg. He was sent by ship to England where he spent three months recovering in hospital.

When Bethune returned to Canada, he resumed his medical studies and completed his Bachelor of Medicine in December 1916. One of his classmates was Frederick Banting, who would later achieve fame as the co-discoverer of insulin. With the war still raging, he returned to service in the Royal Navy as a lieutenant-surgeon. At war's end, he took on a six-month internship at the prestigious Hospital for Sick Children in London, England.

Personal crises: While he was in Scotland, Norman Bethune married a Scottish girl, Frances Campbell Penney, and they moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he set up another private practice. But he was facing a period of crises in his personal life. In 1926, he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. About the same time, his marriage failed, largely due to his lavish spending and flamboyant lifestyle.

Turning point: Dr. Bethune's stay in a New York sanitarium was a turning point. Here, he saw first-hand how little could be done for many victims of tuberculosis. In September 1928 he returned to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montréal and worked for eight years, devoting himself to helping other tuberculosis victims and to studying thoracic surgery. It was a productive time for Dr. Bethune. He invented or re-designed 12 medical and surgical instruments, some of which are still used today.

Off to Spain: When he saw that he could not accomplish his objectives in Canada, he decided to travel to Spain, which, in 1936, was on the verge of civil war. No sooner had he arrived in Spain than he traveled to the front lines and jumped into action. His experience as a stretcher-bearer during the First World War taught him the importance of helping the wounded quickly. So he set up a blood bank close to the front lines and organized a mobile blood-transfusion service, the first of its kind. By the next spring, Dr. Bethune and his small medical team were giving up to 100 blood transfusions a day.

A new cause to embrace:  In 1937, the Japanese invaded China and Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong and his communist soldiers were trying to resist the Japanese invaders. He gathered together a medical team and on January 8, 1938, the Canadian-American Mobile Medical Unit left Canada to join the 8th Route Army in the Shanxi-Hobei border region of China. Once in China, Dr. Bethune immediately adopted the cause and the people as his own. In October 1939, the Japanese launched another attack. Dr. Bethune and his team rushed to the front where the worst fighting was unfolding and worked long hours caring for the wounded. While he was operating on a soldier, Bethune cut his finger. Probably due to his weakened state, he contracted septicaemia (blood poisoning) and died of his wounds on November 12, 1939.

A nation mourns:  Dr. Bethune's death shocked the Chinese nation. Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong wrote a tribute titled "In Memory of Norman Bethune," in which he praised the doctor for his selflessness and dedication to the Chinese people.  In 1952, Norman Bethune's body was moved to a memorial park built to commemorate those who died in the war. Across the road from Bethune's tomb and statue lies the most fitting tribute of all: the Norman Bethune International Peace Hospital. Canada too marked Norman Bethune's passing by naming his birthplace in Gravenhurst, Ontario, a national historic site and unveiling a bronze statue of him in downtown Gravenhurst.