The Spanish Flu Pandemic 1918-1920 and its Effect on Totley and Sheffield

by Pauline Burnett

Anyone who has read the names of the WWI victims on Totley War Memorial will have seen James Parker amongst the ten men remembered there. James (Jim) was raised in a large family living on Summer Lane and was serving in 507th Agricultural Labour Corps, having been transferred from his original Lincolnshire Regiment posting when he became unfit for frontline duty. The reason for this is unknown. 

He died on 10th November 1918, the eve of Armistice Day, not as a result of war action but from Spanish Influenza, and not 'in a foreign field' but in East Yorkshire where the army was training soldiers to provide agricultural labour for British farms (food production being paramount). Influenza, pneumonia and heart failure are recorded as the causes of Jim's death, aged 30 years. How sad to have survived the fighting only to be struck down by this new and mysterious illness. 

The Spanish Flu Pandemic was to infect 500 million people worldwide and claim the lives of 50 million victims before it was spent, many more than had been killed by the fighting and horrors of the Great War. Knowledge of viruses was very limited in 1918. Some scientists of the day thought a bacterium was responsible, while others admitted the cause of this devastating disease was a mystery. It was in fact an Avian related flu virus, only positively identified a few years ago when DNA was extracted from infected lung tissue, retrieved when a corpse buried in the perma-frost of Alaska was exhumed. 

Today we are somewhat shocked to realize that the new coronavirus (Covid-19) can still present modern-day scientists and doctors with many unknown and challenging twists and turns, despite huge medical advances having been made in the intervening years. Experts in the field are racing to understand it, to produce a vaccine that will return us safely to our 'normal' lives, to beat it. No such expectation was being fostered among the population a hundred years ago. So how did the authorities of the day seek to manage this disaster, unfolding at a time when politicians were preoccupied with the problems of the continuing war? 

During the spring of 1918 the illness had been recorded in American soldiers travelling to Europe on a troop ship and was first reported by the Spanish press, thus giving it the label 'Spanish Influenza'. Being aided by such troop movements and frequently overcrowded billeting, the pandemic moved quickly throughout the military, passing into the general population and eventually encircling the globe. It lasted almost 3 years, peaking in the late summer and November of 1918, with smaller fluctuations continuing throughout 1919 and into 1920. 

The Sheffield newspapers printed daily advice, updates and statistics: 

When entering crowded venues breath with mouth shut while sucking on a disinfecting lozenge 

flush your house with fresh air

make the best of it - advice when tram services were affected

don't worry - a totally futile suggestion! 

Lodge Moor Fever Hospital created five extra wards to manage the influx of patients, and pleas for extra nursing staff were made in the press when all of the city's hospitals became overwhelmed. Two doctors on home leave from the army were given permission to extend their time in Sheffield in order to help the overstretched medical staff. 

A report also claimed that the hills of Sheffield were proving too difficult for the horsedrawn ambulances. There were a few early motorised vehicles in operation, but insufficient in number to meet demand. Each patient was issued with a number. The morning newspapers printed a daily bulletin to keep relatives updated on any changes in their condition:

As the pandemic continued, statistics were published to inform the public that problems were being recorded and hopefully addressed.

Throughout its course the epidemic has been most severe in the district known as Ecclesall North, which includes Walkley and the houses running down towards the Barracks. This condition of affairs still exists. Another rather badly affected area is the lower part of Ecclesall West Central, which includes Wentworth Street, where the epidemic began, and runs up as far as Fulwood. The death rate in Broomhall has risen considerably, but in Abbeydale, Heeley, and Sharrow it is rather below that of the rest of the city.

 The question of the interment of bodies of victims still presents many difficulties, but matters are not in such an acute state as they were. There has been a meeting between the City authorities and the undertakers, all of whom are fully alive to the seriousness of the situation, and steps have been taken to improve matters. The question of the preparation of graves is now described as being 'satisfactorily in hand.' The assistance of a number of soldiers to perform the duties of grave-diggers has been obtained. The undertakers ahve also been able to obtain assistance in the making of coffins, and cofins have also been obtained from other towns. It is hoped that those two very awkward problems have now been carried to a point which borders on solution.

Advertisements abounded for products that claimed to protect or cure. From the distance of a century it's easy to be scathing about their efficacy, but with little medical understanding and fear ruling the population it is understandable that people would be prepared to try anything that might work.

Articles were frequently featured in which favourable opinions were made about the make/price and availabilty of someone's latest life-saving idea. 1918 versions of the false news and scams to be found on social media during this present pandemic. People are still gullible! Products disappeared off the shelves - sound familiar?! Drinking Oxo or Bovril was thought to be of great benefit. So much so that the inability to supply troops was of concern, forcing the manufacturers to place this apology and request in the papers.

This has echoes in our recent flour shortage. The product itself was available, but only if the packaging problems could be resolved. In 1918 it was a shortage of bottles, in 2020 the limited production-line capacity for producing 1.5kg bags of flour. 

By the early months of 1919 Sheffield's worst peak was beginning to decline, just as the Derbyshire newspapers were reporting a significant increase of victims in the Peak District. Totley residents must have felt they were being squeezed between these two areas of infection but I have been unable to find any reports of deaths in our area specifically due to influenza, so hopefully the villagers managed to escape the worst of the pandemic. 

However, deaths recorded by the Medical Officer of Health for Sheffield are shown in the graph above and illustrate the devastation that Spanish Influenza wreaked on the city over a period of more than two years.

Pauline Burnett

June 2020