Remembrance: the great flu' epidemic of 1918-19

As we head towards Remembrance Day I have in mind some blips to do with wars past. Today's is from the aftermath of World War 1.

While localized eruptions of influenza are fairly common, sometimes a 'flu epidemic breaks out which is truly international in scale, and is then called a pandemic. Huge numbers of people become infected and a great many may die. Influenza pandemics occurred at least three times in the 20th Century : the Hong Kong Flu in 1968, the Asian Flu in 1957, and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, commonly known as the Spanish Flu.

In the summer of 1918 a severe form of influenza broke out and eventually killed 70 million people around the world until it finally, unexpectedly, died out in 1919. The virus killed far more people than did the fighting of 1914-18. The outbreak began in the Middle East in the spring of 1918 and reached the Western Front shortly afterwards. Initially the symptoms were mild but by the summer up to a third of influenza sufferers reported serious symptoms, such as bronchial pneumonia and septicemic blood poisoning. A large number died quickly after the onset of symptoms because the virus caused an uncontrollable haemorrhaging that filled the lungs, and patients would drown in their own body fluids. The pandemic inevitably had military consequences but a far higher number of civilians died. The virus swept across German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish battle lines before it reached France. By the autumn of 1918 the virus had spread across the Atlantic to the U.S.A. carried by the returning American soldiers. Around 450,000 civilians died in the prosperous United States, the majority of them otherwise healthy people under the age of 40. In Britain some 228,000 civilian casualties died; 400,000 in Germany. Hardest hit however was India with a reported 16 million casualties alone. For reasons unknown, in mid-1919 the pandemic withered and died out.

It is easy to forget the personal suffering of individuals when faced with such unimaginable statistics. This coffin plate tells the story of one such individual. Ida Gorman died of the 'flu in Webbwood, Ontario, Canada just before Christmas, 1919. She left 6 young children who were to spend the rest of their childhood in an orphanage, their father being unable to support them. Ida's husband William was descended from Denis and Mary O'Gorman who had emigrated to Canada from Kilrush, County Clare during the height of the Irish Potato Famine. Before they left Kilrush, the parish records report that the family was receiving 'out door aid'. In other words with their harvest rotting in the fields they were living on hand-outs from the Parish, although spared the indignity of entering the work house.

The youngest of Ida's sons, John, eventually returned to Europe, landing on the Normandy beaches with the Canadian Army in June 1944. John was my father.