“I had a little bird
its name was Enza
I opened the window,
and in-flu-enza.”
(1918 children’s playground rhyme)
2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the Spanish Flu epidemic. Over 50 million people died worldwide and a quarter of the British population were affected. The death toll was 228,000 in Britain alone. It is generally believed that the epidemic started in the Near East and reached Britain in early 1918. Although not caused by World War I, it is thought that in the UK, the virus was spread by soldiers returning home from the trenches in northern France. Soldiers were becoming ill with what was known as ‘la grippe’, the symptoms of which were sore throats, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although highly infectious in the cramped, primitive conditions of the trenches, recovery was usually swift and doctors at first called it “three-day fever”. It swept across Britain in three waves, and lasted from January 1918 until December 1920.
Young adults between 20 and 30 years old were particularly affected and the disease struck and progressed quickly in these cases. Onset was devastatingly quick. Those fine and healthy at breakfast could be dead by tea-time. Within hours of feeling the first symptoms of fatigue, fever and headache, some victims would rapidly develop pneumonia and start turning blue, signalling a shortage of oxygen. They would then struggle for air until they suffocated to death.
More people died of influenza in that single year than in the four years of the Black Death Bubonic Plague from 1347 to 1351.
To what effect the pandemic had on the villages of the High Country is difficult to judge. However if we check the burial registers over a ten year period from 1915-1925 we can check whether there was an increase in death rates during the period of the illness.
Greensted Burials:
1915 2
1916 0
1917 0
1918 5
1919 0
1920 1
1921 1
1922 0
1923 0
1924 0
1925 0
There was a peak in 1918. The five that died were aged 74, 71, 27, 25, and 52 years of age.
Stanford Rivers:
1915 9
1916 12
1917 10
1918 10
1919 11
1920 7
1921 5
1922 11
1923 5
1924 2
1925 2
Stapleford Tawney:
1915 2
1916 5
1917 0
1918 3
1919 2
1920 1
1921 0
1922 3
1923 0
1924 2
1925 4
Theydon Mount:
1915 2
1916 5
1917 3
1918 3
1919 1
1920 0
1921 1
1922 2
1923 0
1924 2
1925 4
Although this is far from being an academic piece of research it would I suggest show that the flu pandemic did not lead to an increase in mortality rates over the period under discussion.
In respect of Greensted it would be interesting to know what the causes of death were before reaching any conclusion.