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list price: $28.95
edition:Paperback
also available: eBook
category: Biography & Autobiography
published: Nov 2019
ISBN:9781553805755
publisher: Ronsdale Press

Service on the Skeena

Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician

by Geoff Mynett

tagged: historical
Description

The previously untold story of a remarkable British Columbian

His name was Horace Wrinch. It was 1880. He was 14 years old, a farmer's boy from England travelling on his own to Quebec. Twenty years later, a qualified doctor and surgeon, he arrived in Hazelton on the Skeena River in northern British Columbia as a Canadian citizen. At this time the northern interior of the province had no qualified doctors, no surgeons and no hospitals. In 1904 Horace built the first hospital in the northern interior. Over the next thirty-six years he became widely respected as a doctor and surgeon, hospital administrator, medical missionary, Methodist minister, magistrate, farmer, community leader and progressive politician. Ever innovative, he instituted a form of health insurance for the Hazelton community as early as 1908. Upon his death in 1939, he was called "the most influential and best liked man that ever blessed this district with his presence."

About the Author
Geoff Mynett was born in England where he qualified as a Barrister. After emigrating to British Columbia in 1973, he became a Canadian citizen, requalified as a lawyer and practiced law until his retirement. His first book, Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician (Ronsdale Press, 2019), received a Jeanne Clarke Memorial Award. His second book, Pinkerton's and the Hunt for Simon Gunanoot, and his third book, Murders on the Skeena: True Crime in the Old Canadian West, were both published by Caitlin Press. All three books were bestsellers in BC. Geoff and his wife Alice live in Vancouver and have two sons.
Contributor Notes

Geoff Mynett was born in Shrewsbury, England. He qualified in London as a barrister, later requalifying as a barrister and solicitor in British Columbia. After a career in law in Vancouver, he is now retired and pursuing an interest in history and the arts. He is also an artist, specializing in charcoal portraits. Research for this biography of Horace Wrinch has taken him to archives and libraries in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Hazelton, and Smithers. He has also drawn upon family papers, photographs and contemporaneous sources to write this story of a medical pioneer and largely forgotten reformer in British Columbia. Visit him online at www.geoffmynett.com.

Editorial Review

Winner, George Ryga for Social Awareness in literature.

"Mynett brings the human side of Horace Wrinch to life in this accessible and superbly written work." - BC BookWorld

"Through this rigorous study, he portrays a compelling account of Wrinch's life and work." - The British Columbia Review

"Service on the Skeena&nbspnot only provides the fascinating life story of this&nbspremarkable man, it also fills important gaps in the history of northwest B.C." - Neil Sterritt, Former Gitxsan-Wet'suwet'en Tribal Council President

"I highly recommend this excellent biography of an outstanding pioneer doctor." - BC Medical Journal

"Many in the general public and among scholars will appreciate Mynett's contribution, and future historians of northern British Columbia, of the history of health care and health insurance, and of missionary doctors will find in this book an excellent source for further research." - BC Studies

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