Nurse Bennett Heritage House

Nurse Myra Grimsley (Bennett) came to Daniel's Harbour, a Newfoundland outport community, in 1921. The war-trained English nurse volunteered for a Newfoundland posting from the British Overseas Nursing Association. For more than 50 years, Newfoundland's Nurse Myra Bennett was the only medical aid along almost 320 kilometres of rugged coastline on the Northern Peninsula. She set broken limbs, performed kitchen table operations by lamp light, sutured and dressed wounds of every description, she delivered more than 700 babies, extracted at least 5000 teeth and ministered medical aid to those suffering from tuberculosis. She travelled up and down the coast in all kinds of weather. There were no roads until the late 1950's and travel was often by steam boat, dog sled, horse or by foot depending on the weather and what was available. In 1922 "The Nurse" married local merchant, Angus Bennett. While she was paid for periods of time by the Newfoundland and Labrador Government, she spent years providing medical services at her own expense. The Nurse also took on chores of rural Newfoundland women.