As part of its first peacetime public health program, the Canadian Red Cross of the 1920s took a special interest in the health and welfare of Canadian children. One focus of this work was the provision of medical and surgical treatment for children with orthopaedic or other physical disabilities. This photo shows a young child receiving treatment arranged through the Red Cross.

In March 1921, the Duke of Devonshire (then serving as Governor General of Canada) emphasized the place of children in the Red Cross’ peacetime work: “We want to prevent as far as we can unnecessary suffering and unnecessary loss of life, and bring up …  sound, healthy children,” he explained. 

Of special concern were children in rural or remote areas who had physical disabilities that could be treated, but whose families lived far from hospitals or could not afford the procedure. In this era before publicly-funded health care, Canadians who could not afford long hospital stays or surgical bills usually did without. However, even a relatively straightforward orthopaedic condition like “club foot,” if left untreated, could put a real damper on a child’s quality of life, not to mention their future employment prospects as adults.

 “We want to prevent as far as we can unnecessary suffering…” 

To help these young people, provincial divisions of the Red Cross opened funds to help pay for hospital stays, and recruited volunteers to identify children in need. Many doctors and surgeons gave their services for free or at cost, to provide treatment. Schoolchildren enrolled in the Junior Red Cross raised money to help pay for other costs of the program.

In some provinces, children identified as needing help were taken to regular hospitals, where they stayed (often for weeks or months) during their course of treatment. The provincial Red Cross divisions in Alberta and Saskatchewan, however, opened their own small hospitals specifically for children. These facilities were known (in the language of the day) as “Crippled Children’s Hospitals,” and tailored their services and equipment to young patients.

The Red Cross “Crippled Children’s Hospitals” and “Crippled Children’s Fund” continued into the late 1950s, at which point the advent of universal hospital insurance (and later Medicare) removed the need for them. The hospital facilities in Alberta and Saskatchewan were transferred to provincial ownership, continuing their work for child patients within the new publicly-funded hospital system.