Henry Norman Bethune (1890-1939) was a physician dedicated to service to humanity. He provided medical services to the poor in Canada, to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and to the Chinese during their invasion by Japan.

Henry Norman Bethune was born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, on March 3, 1890. His father was a Presbyterian minister who had descended from a long line of clergymen, educators, and medical practitioners. His mother had been an evangelical missionary. Bethune's early commitment to maintain the family tradition of service to the less fortunate remained throughout his life.

Bethune left medical school at the University of Toronto in 1914 to enlist in the Canadian army. Wounded in action in France in 1915, he went back to the university to complete his medical studies. After graduation he joined the Royal Navy and then the Canadian air force.

During the early 1920s, he pursued postgraduate studies in medicine...