Educational Media Reviews Online

This work chronicles the experiences of Dr. Mary Percy Jackson from the time she arrived in the wilds of Northern Alberta in 1929 up to 1996 when the film was made. Born in England the oldest of four children, Mary Percy knew from the age of 11 that she wanted to be a doctor. At the University of Birmingham Medical School she received the highest exam grades in her class in medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. After graduation Dr. Percy read an article in a British medical journal about the need for doctors in Western Canada, particularly ones with experience in midwifery and horseback riding. Women doctors were especially welcome since "they could be paid less, keep house and cook". She signed a year's contract and set sail for Canada, eventually arriving in Alberta. Dr. Percy's training period was cut short when she was sent to Battle River Prairie, "remote even by Canadian standards", to replace the district nurse who had broken her arm. Battle River Prairie had no roads, hotel, or electricity and Dr. Percy's 3 room "palatial shack" served as home and office. Her companions were Brutus, her dog, and her horse Don. She delivered babies, pulled teeth, and sewed on severed fingers, something she said she would not have been allowed to do as a woman doctor back in England. Surviving blizzards, near drowning, and loneliness, Mary Percy doctored the growing population, which was made up of Native Canadians, immigrants from Europe, and the original local residents.

Dr. Percy's life changed when she met Frank Jackson, a widower with three children, from Keg River, 70 miles north of Battle River Prairie who first came to Dr. Percy as a patient. They eventually married and moved to Keg River where she still lives in the house that he built. Continuing her practice, she became a pioneer in preventive medicine through her advocacy of immunization for children, the teaching of nutrition and hygiene, and her success in bringing tuberculosis under control. She helped set up an outpost hospital which received donations of life-saving drugs, including the newly discovered penicillin. Dr. Jackson and her husband were also honored for bringing culture and education to the area and the local school was named after her. All the people whose lives she touched during her 65 years in Alberta still revere her.

The technical quality of this film is very good and skillfully weaves together modern film, old black and white photographs and movies, and interviews with Dr. Jackson, her family, and her many friends and patients. The viewer is given a vivid portrait of not only Dr. Jackson, but also the changing face of the Alberta wilderness where she spent so many years. Two narrators read from Dr. Jackson's letters as she does herself. At the time of this film, Dr. Jackson was still a vivacious, charming and outspoken individual. Her own words best describe how she saw herself during her life of service to the inhabitants of the Alberta wilderness: "I was neither male nor female. I was the doctor."

Wanted! Doctor on Horseback is highly recommended for academic health sciences libraries and would also be a good choice for libraries with women's studies collections.