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- In full:
- Henry Norman Bethune
- Born:
- March 3, 1890, Gravenhurst, Ont., Can.
- Died:
- Nov. 12, 1939, Huang Shikou, Hebei, China (aged 49)
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Norman Bethune
Canadian surgeon and political activist
Also known as: Henry Norman Bethune
Norman Bethune (born March 3, 1890, Gravenhurst, Ont., Can.—died Nov. 12, 1939, Huang Shikou, Hebei, China) was a Canadian surgeon and political activist. He began his medical career in 1917, serving with Canadian forces in World War I. During the Spanish Civil War he was a surgeon with the loyalist forces, setting up the first mobile blood-transfusion service. After a trip to the Soviet Union in 1935, he joined the Communist Party of Canada. In 1938 he left Canada to serve as a surgeon with the Chinese army in its war with Japan, organizing field hospitals and setting up medical schools. He became a national hero of China.
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