Showing posts with label Spanish Influenza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spanish Influenza. Show all posts

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Surviving the Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918-1919

 

1st Depot Battalion, Coy 4, P.T. Quarantine Camp, July 1918;
Hugh is on the left side of the front row with no hat on. ~ Annette Fulford collection

Hugh Clark was a farmer living at Storthoaks, Saskatchewan, when he was conscripted into the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1918.

H

ugh McKenzie Clark, Regimental # 269054, was conscripted into the army at Regina, Saskatchewan on May 23, 1918, with the 1st Depot Battalion, Saskatchewan Regiment, Company 4. His recruitment papers say that he was 22 years old, 5 ft 9 inches tall with a red complexion, brown eyes, and light brown hair. 

The 1st Depot Battalion trained at the exhibition grounds in Regina until late July. They left Canada from Montreal headed for England on board the ship Cassandra on July 28, 1918. Their ship docked at Liverpool on August 5, 1918, and they were taken to Bramshott camp in southern England. Shortly before his 23rd birthday, Hugh was transferred to the 15th Canadian Reserve Battalion.

While training at Bramshott, soldiers from the 15th Reserve Battalion began getting sick near the end of September. The unit had a sick parade on September 28 and was placed in quarantine on October 1, 1918. My grandfather entered the hospital with influenza on October 6, 1918, but was discharged eight days later on October 14, 1918. His influenza didn’t develop into a high fever with Broncho-pneumonia as some of the soldiers in his unit did.

The medical war diaries for Assistant Director of Medical Services, No. 12 Canadian General Hospital at Bramshott, show that 176 people were admitted to the hospital on the 6th and that there were seven deaths on that day. The war diary shows that over the next couple of weeks many young soldiers training at the camp were sent to the hospital and some of them died.

On October 14th, the medical director noted: “the pathological conditions of the victims from influenza are most startling – one patient showed multiple abscess of the lung – bronchial pneumonia – sero – fibrinous pleurisy and acute myocarditis.”


Among the number of young men from the 15th Reserve who died during the flu pandemic was Roy William Clark, Regimental # 269053 who was conscripted into the 1st Depot Battalion on the same day as my grandfather. Roy was 23 years old, 5 ft 10 inches tall with a brown complexion, blue eyes, and medium hair. He was a farmer who lived at Spy Hill, an hour, and a half north of where Hugh lived at Storthoaks, Saskatchewan.

Roy first noticed symptoms of influenza on September 24 and was admitted to the 12th Canadian General Hospital on September 30, 1918. He developed a high fever with a rapid pulse and difficulty breathing throughout his stay in the hospital. On his last day, the doctor indicated that his face was turning blue due to the lack of oxygen in his blood. At 2 pm, Roy in his delirious state attempted to cut his own throat but caused only superficial wounds. He finally succumbed to the flu at 3 pm on October 15, the day after my grandfather was released. Both men were farmers, who were of similar height, age, and background. What decided the fate of these two young men?

Another soldier from the 15th Reserve Battalion who survived the flu at Bramshott was Peter Longphee, Regimental # 268555, Company 5. He was also conscripted in May 1918 at Regina a few days before my grandfather on May 18, 1918. Hugh and Peter lived in neighbouring communities, so I am not sure they were friends before they enlisted or whether they became friends later. Peter was 5ft, 9 ½ inches tall with a dark complexion, grey eyes, and brown hair. He would be admitted to the 12 General Hospital on October 5, 1918. Records show that he was released on October 10, and like my grandfather, he only had a mild case of influenza. Peter would be a witness at my grandparent’s marriage in April 1919 after they transferred to Ripon camp in Yorkshire in late January 1919 to await demobilization.

Checking more records, I learned that John Hannibal Badger, Regiment # 268680, Company 5, was another soldier from Saskatchewan who survived the pandemic at Bramshott in October 1918, only to die from influenza at the Ripon Military Hospital in North Yorkshire in May 1919. John married while overseas. Sadly, his wife Ellen Hathaway would become a widow after only three short months. He is buried in the Stockport Borough Cemetery in Cheshire, England where his wife lived.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed millions of people worldwide during 1918/19. During the war, 300 soldiers were buried at the local church at Bramshott (St. Mary). Of those who died, over 40 were influenza victims from the 15th Reserve Battalion; many of these young men were from Saskatchewan. There were also many soldiers from the 21st Reserve Battalion who died of influenza. I wonder how many young men who are pictured here survived the flu pandemic as my grandfather did and brought home a war bride.


15th Reserve Battalion at Ripon camp - Annette Fulford collection

Do you recognize any of the young men from the 15th Reserve Battalion in these photos? If so, please email me at wwiwarbrides@shaw.ca . I have a full list of the young men who died during the flu pandemic at Bramshott camp.

(c) Annette Fulford, November 2020

Sources:

Camp Exhibition is a Model Camp in all Respects. Regina Leader-Post, July 3, 1918, 8 & 9 (accessed March 10, 2019).

Hugh McKenzie Clark, Regimental # 269054. Personnel Records of the First World War, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1745 – 30, Library and Archives Canada. (accessed November 16, 2000)

Peter Francis Longphee, Regimental # 268555, Personnel Records of the First World War, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5733A – 7, Library and Archives Canada. (accessed March 22, 2019)

Roy William Clark, Regimental # 269053, Personnel Records of the First World War, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1761 – 34, Library and Archives Canada. (accessed October 10, 2018)

John Hannibal Badger, Regimental #268680, Personnel Records of the First World War, RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 333 – 18, Library and Archives Canada. (accessed on October 15, 2018)

Grace Clark, photo album, photo of PT class quarantine camp for 1st Depot Battalion soldiers and 15th Reserve Battalion photo.

L.C. Giles, Liphook, Bramshott and the Canadians, (Liphook, Hants: Blackwell press for the Bramshott and Liphook Preservation Society, 1986)

War diaries - Assistant Director of Medical Services, Bramshott =1917/03/01-1918/12/31. File. RG9-III-D-3. Volume/box number: 5026. File number: 821.Copied container number: T-10912, Library and Archives Canada. (accessed February 4, 2015).

Monday, November 5, 2018

Lives Cut Short during the Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918

It has been 100 years since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 killed millions of people worldwide. Some families and communities were devastated by the virus, while many others survived the deadly disease without incident. I’d like to remember the members of one New Brunswick family who was torn apart by the pandemic.



Rhoda Carrier collection
British-born Maud Blanche Cornish was born on 13 June 1895, in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England the daughter of Samuel Cornish and Caroline Horne. She married Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) soldier William Jonathan Carson (Regimental # 42) from Holtville, Northumberland, New Brunswick in December 1917.

William joined the CEF in April 1915 at Fredericton, N.B. and went overseas with the Canadian Army Service Corps (C.A.S.C) but had transferred to the Canadian Forestry Corp by 1917 when he married Maud.

Maud Carson was several months pregnant when she travelled to Canada with her new husband on 24 April 1918, as a war bride. Her husband was returning home as he was longer fit for service. They sailed from Liverpool on the SS Aquitania and landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia at Pier 2 on 29 April, where they boarded a train to her new home in Holtville, N.B. Maud obtained an Emergency Certificate of British Nationality for Canada in order to travel to the Dominion during the war. 




Rhoda Carrier collection

The harbour in Halifax was still being rebuilt after an explosion rocked the city on 6 December 1917. Two boats collided in the harbour; one was a munitions ship loaded with explosives destined for the battlefields in Europe. It destroyed much of the downtown core around Pier 6, killing over 1,900 people and injuring more than 9,000. Pier 2 also sustained damage and was unable to support the large numbers of passengers that it had in previous years.

Maud settled into life in the small town of Holtville to await the birth of her first child. She was one of the many people who was counted during in the Canadian National Registration of 1918 which was taken on 22 June 1918.

Maud Carson gave birth to her only son, William James Carson (“Jim” as he was known) on 6 November 1918. Tragically, life for this family would be forever altered. Influenza swept through their household killing her father-in-law on 4 November. Both Maud and her husband William contracted the flu shortly after and succumbed to the virus about a week later, leaving their only child an orphan. Records indicate Maud gave birth while fighting the virus. The only other person who lived in the house at the time was Christina Carson, Maud’s mother-in-law. She survived the ordeal and went to live with her daughter.


Evening Times & Star, November 1918
A reverend from the church in nearby Boiestown, N.B. took the young orphan into his household but refused to surrender the infant to his family. A custody battle ensued. William’s sister, Christina Plume, travelled from nearby York County to fight for custody of her nephew. She applied for guardianship of him, which she was granted on 12 May 1919. William’s WWI personnel file shows that Rev. Smith of Boiestown was issued a cheque as the guardian of William and Maud’s son in the amount of $424.90 in April 1919.

Her lawyer, Charles D. Richard, of Fredericton advised that with guardianship papers in hand and a provincial constable at her side, she should be able to obtain custody of the child by any means possible, given that “you do not commit any definite act of violence or assault” in order to do so.

Christina Plume finally gained custody of her nephew six months after his birth. Fortunately, his aunt was able to provide him with a loving and stable household despite that the fact that her husband Samuel died five years later after a threshing accident on the farm.

The following poem was written about the death of William Carson and his wife Maud by a neighbour of Plume family, Mrs. James McKinnon of Tay Falls.

Back to old New Brunswick,
The war-worn hero came,
And one there was beside him
Who had chosen to bear his name.

One of Old England’s daughters,
Faithful and true and brave,
She crossed the broad Atlantic
To sleep in a foreign grave.

One short year together,
In love and hope and joy;
Then they passed from earth for ever,
And left a baby boy.

Just a little gift from Heaven,
Sent with a Father’s love,
To turn our thoughts from this sad world
To the better world above.

For a little child shall lead them
Over the stormy tide,
Till they meet their own dear soldier
And his little English bride.

So weep no more, dear mother,
For those that have passed away,
For the loving Father called them
Into Eternal Day.


Jim Carson grew up with many siblings. Christina and Samuel Plume had ten children of their own. During WW2, he enlisted in the Canadian army and served overseas with the Royal Canadian Engineers (RCE). While overseas he was able to meet his mother Maud’s siblings and spend time with them.

In a letter home to his mother, Christine Plume, in 1943 he wrote:

Dear Momma: just a few lines to let you know that I am well and hope this letter finds you all the same  how is Mack getting along with the work  suppose Bert is helping him  have you sent any smokes yet  hope you have as I am out of tobacco now and this English tobacco is so dear and besides I don’t like it either  have you got any of my letters yet  I sent you an air mail letter just after I arrived here so I hope you have it by now  I was up to my aunt last week end and they are all well  they don’t live far from here my Bond will be paid up this month so you let me know as it should be there by the middle of November  how is Ella and Margie  suppose they stay with you most of the time  I like this country but at the same time I would like to be back in Canada  but o the war will soon be over and then I will be home  I have eleven months in the army to day  well Momma I guess I have said all for this time so will close.
Bye  Lots of Love Jim XXOO




Rhoda Carrier collection

Jim survived the war and returned home to his family. He married Rhoda Jordan in 1950. They had four children together. Jim died in October 1992 at the age of 73. He is buried at the foot of his parent’s grave in the Cameron Hill Cemetery in Holtville, N.B. He was not able to spend this lifetime with them but they will be together for all eternity.







Sources: 
William Jonathan Carson, Regimental No. 42, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 1536 – 50, Personnel Files of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada
Influenza, 1918-1919
The Canadian Encyclopedia: The Halifax Explosion
Halifax Explosion
The Halifax Explosion
National Registration of 1918
Remembering Pier 2: Halifax’s Other Immigrant Gateway By Craig Dodge  https://pier21.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/files/First_75_Years/research_remembering_pier2.pdf

(c) Annette Fulford, November 2018

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Using Canadian WWI War Diaries for Military Ships with Civilian Passengers

Toronto Star
A great resource that many people are not aware of is the war diaries for ships during and after WWI. If your war bride travelled on a ship that contained military men, you might be able to locate a war diary for their sailing at Library and Archives Canada in War Diaries Some are online, while others are available on microfilm only. An alternative viewer for war diaries is online at UVIC C.G.W.P. War Diaries.

To do a search for the diaries for ships do an Advanced Archives Search for War Diaries and add the name of the ship on the second line in the search function. They show up under War Diaries - Progress Charts, Transports  Olympic for example.

Lily May Young married British-born Canadian Expeditionary Force soldier Samuel Palmer (Regimental #778984) in 1918 in England. Sam was a widower with three young children back home in Ontario. Not long after she married, Lily left from Southampton, England on the Olympic on 1st November 1918, intending to travel to Toronto and set up a house for her husband and his family while he was still overseas.

Lily travelled to Canada during the height of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, so I was interested to learn whether the cause of her death was influenza. The passenger list for the Olympic shows her name is crossed off and the info "died at sea" is written above her line on the manifest but no cause of death is listed.

Olympic Passenger List. Library and Archives Canada


In order to confirm how she died, I needed to find an alternative source of information about her death. That is where the war diaries come in useful. This is one page from the November 1918 sailing of the Olympic. 


War Diaries, Olympic. Library and Archives Canada

The diary records that Lily took sick with a septic throat and was placed in an isolation hospital on board on 4th November. She died on November 1918, at age 23 of Broncho-pneumonia and septicemia and was buried at sea the next day. The ship landed at New York two days later on the 10th

Sadly, she was just the first of many young war brides who died during their journey to Canada. Officials on the next sailing of the Olympic issued gauze masks to the passengers in order to keep the outbreak on board to a minimum but it didn't stop the deaths of a number of war brides coming to Canada during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919.

Source:
Canada Passenger Lists, 1881-1922. Database with images. FamilySearch.orf http://FamilySearch.org: 27 August 2018. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario.

MIKAN 2005288 War Diaries - Progress Charts, Transports: OLYPMIC = Journal de guerre - Tableau d'avancement, Transports: OLYMPIC. 1916/09/14-1919/04/21. Library and Archives Canada 

(c) Annette Fulford, September 2018
Updated on January 23, 2021