Bethune, Henry Norman

Henry Norman Bethune, surgeon, inventor, political activist (b at Gravenhurst, Ont 3 Mar 1890; d at Huang Shiko, N China 12 Nov 1939). Bethune's fame in Canada has resulted from his status as a hero in the People's Republic of China and the impact of this on Sino-Canadian relations. Son of the manse, Bethune took up the profession of his surgeon grandfather. He interrupted his medical studies in Toronto to be a labourer-teacher at Frontier College (1911-12) and to serve in 1915 as a stretcher bearer in WWI.

Keywords

Born in 1890

Doctors & Health Administrators

Following a stint in the Royal Navy, postgraduate training in Britain and private practice in Detroit, Mich, he was found in 1926 to have contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. After this personal crisis, he devoted himself to other tuberculosis victims and to thoracic surgery in Montréal at the Royal Victoria Hospital and later at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur, Cartierville, Qué.

Between 1929 and 1936 he invented or redesigned 12 medical and surgical instruments and wrote 14 articles describing his innovations in thoracic technique. He became increasingly disillusioned with surgical treatment and concerned with the socioeconomic aspects of disease. He challenged his profession and proposed radical reforms of medical care and health services in Canada.

After a visit to the Soviet Union in 1935, Bethune joined the Communist Party. This commitment took him to the Spanish Civil War in 1936, where he organized a mobile blood transfusion service, the first of its kind, to operate on a 1000 km front. He returned to Canada in 1937 to raise money for the antifascist cause in Spain and soon turned his attention to the war being waged by communist forces against the Japanese invaders in China. "Spain and China," he wrote, "are part of the same battle."

Bethune left Canada for the last time in 1938 to join the 8th Route Army in the Shanxi-Hobei border region. There, he was a tireless and inventive surgeon, teacher and propagandist, and he adopted the cause and the people as his own. His accidental death from septicemia evoked Mao Zedong's essay "In Memory of Norman Bethune," which urged all communists to emulate his spirit of internationalism, his sense of responsibility and his devotion to others. One of 3 prescribed articles during the Cultural Revolution, the essay made Bethune's name almost synonymous with Canada in China.

Bethune, Norman
Portrait of Norman Bethune taken in Madrid, Spain, 1937 (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/PA-114788).

Blood Transfusion Unit
Twelve hundred Canadian supporters of the republican cause went to Spain to fight under the banner of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion. Norman Bethune, who performs a transfusion, was the most famous (Courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-67451)

Author HILARY RUSSELL

Links to Other Sites

Norman Bethune
A biography of Dr. Norman Bethune from the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.

Norman Bethune 1890-1939
A brief biography of Dr. Norman Bethune. From Library and Archives Canada.

Norman Bethune Tapestry
This site focuses on the intriguing history of the colourful Norman Bethune tapestry at UBC’s Woodward Biomedical Library.

Bethune Memorial House National Historic Site
The Bethune Memorial House National Historic Site offers fascinating details about the extraordinary life and achievements of this international renowned Canadian medical doctor. From Parks Canada.

Mobile Blood Banks: The Innovative Dr. Norman Bethune
This article about Norman Bethune focuses on his work with mobile blood bank units in battlefield conditions. From Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

Dr. Norman Bethune
A brief profile of the heroic Canadian doctor, Norman Bethune. From the Norman Bethune College at York University.

Extraordinary Canadians
Click on the brief profiles of some "extraordinary Canadians" and the authors who write about them in this series from Penguin Group (Canada.) Also includes bios of artists who created the cover art for each book.