Hi – I wonder if anyone can help with this.



My grandfather served as a Staff Quartermaster Serjeant in the RAOC between 1916 and 1919 in Egypt. Among papers that have been passed through the family are two newspaper obituaries from unknown papers from Stirling in Scotland that state that he died suddenly, aged 30 from bubonic plague on 25 June 1919 while returning home from Egypt. He is buried in the Taranto Town Cemetery Extension in Italy. The family story is that he was on a troop ship and that many more died of the plague before it docked in Taranto and that there might have been other ships affected. I would be very interested to find out more about this and would be grateful for any advice about where to look.

Thanks,
Hugh

Hugh

Your grandfather most likely died of Spanish Flu and not Bubonic Plague. Spanish Flu came out of nowhere in 1918/1919 and is reckoned to have killed 50 million people worldwide - latest research says it could be as high as 100 million people.

Initially as it took its toll of Allied and German soldiers in France in 1918, each nation thought it could be a deadly bacteriological enemy weapon and all information about its effects was sat on. However, the Spanish (who took no part in the 1914-18 war) published the fact that 8 million people had died in Spain by mid 1918 - hence the name. Many doctors who saw its effects compared it to Bubonic Plague in its virulence. A man could feel fine at breakfast, under the weather at lunch and be dead by teatime. It was particularily deadly to younger men who had stronger immune systems and when the virus took hold of a victim his body produced a massive immune response that inflamed his lungs and drowned him. Older people (over 50 years of age) often survived an attack of this flu.

It reached all parts of the globe (except Iceland that barred entry and so was spared) especially with millions of soldiers returning after the conflict. It is possible that rotating soldiers from UK to Egypt brought the virus with them or indeed the crew of a troopship. The cramped confines of a troopship crossing the Mediterranean would have been an ideal place for the spread of the virus.

I think in the first instance you need to clarify whether it was Plague or Spanish Flu and I suggest you contact Prof John Oxford with the question. Most virologists will know if a Bubonic Plague was active in 1919.

Professor of Virology
Scientific Director of Retroscreen Virology Ltd
Centre for Infectious Diseases
Bart's and the London
Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry
327 Mile End Road
London E1 4NS
United Kingdom

I have no way of knowing if the Prof could help but he'll probably know someone who can. You might also check to see if the Commonwealth War Grave Commission took over the Taranto Graveyard Extension. If it was Spanish Flu just google it and you'll be reading for the rest of your life. Best of luck.

Stewart

Bubonic plague is still endemic in certain countries. It was much more widespread in 1918/19 and it is quite possible that a small outbreak occurred on board a ship in the Middle East. That is, small in relation to the ' Spanish Flu ' which was raging world wide at the time. The death certificate ought to help. If you know the papers who printed the articles, they may have archives to see if there are more articles at the time.

Hugh,

Many cases of Bubonic Plague aboard ships are mentioned in the London Times 1918-1920. The cases below were all confirmed B-P by medical authourities:

"Hector" arrived Gravesend from Calcutta on 8 August 1918, four crewmembers ill.

"City of Sparta" arrived Liverpool from Bombay on 29 April 1919, a soldier died at sea and a crewmember died in a Liverpool hospital on 17 May.

A Liverpool stevedore died 19 July 1919.

"Framlington Court" arrived Avonmouth from Alexandria, Egypt 29 July 1919, two officers confirmed suffering from Bubonic Plague.

I've just chanced across another reference to bubonic plague during WWI in Poor Bloody Infantry: a memory of the first World War by WHA Groom and remembered this thread; The author, on returning to the training camp at Fovant and reporting that he'd come from Bristol, was promptly slapped into isolation for three weeks because "A sailor is in hospital in Bristol suffering from bubonic plague..." During his enforced isolation (spent with three others) "...we were treated like lepers with our food being left outside the hut and plates etc., being sterilised before being returned." Groom comments that his isolation may have saved his life as it had resulted in him not going to France with his fellow trainees many of whom were to be killed on the Somme.

NigelS