How Spanish flu epidemic devastated Wales in 1918

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Gunner Ivor John Hiley had survived three years fighting in World War One in France but a month after Armistice Day he was back home – and dying of influenza.

His wife Maud, 28, and five-year-old daughter Molly died two weeks before on the same day, one at home in Sebastopol near Pontypool, the other in a nursing home.

They were victims of a world in which they would have paid more than 8,750 but which was estimated to be as high as 11,400.

Globally, 50m people lost their lives in 1918-19 in what is known as Spanish Flu. It could strike alarmingly quickly, leading to collapse and death within days or even hours. For some, symptoms included lungs with a blue-ish fluid and bleeding from the ears or nose.

World War One played a factor in spreading the disease, as well as the front line.

Funeral notices of fl uctors started to appear in the local newspapers.

But the full impact of the epidemic is missing in the media still under threat.

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Ivor Hiley, 32, the sound of a butcher from Barry, had managed to drapery business before the war.

He had arrived at Newport railway station, on leave of the Royal Field Artillery, where he had been working in the ammunition supply lines in France. He had walked the eight miles (13km) home by midnight but reportedly by the morning was already showing signs of flu. He died on December 16.

Both Maud and Molly had developed pneumonia while Ivor's complications included meningitis. Maud's brother also died in the outbreak.

Council-appointed medical officers of health are at the vanguard of dealing with the outbreak on the ground.

According to Monmouthshire medical officer Dr. David Rocyn-Jones, the epidemic "spread with alarming rapidity".

Dr. Rocyn-Jones – a doctor and collar surgeon in Abertillery – said the infection, working in the pits, followed by the mothers and older children and finally the children attending the infant schools.

But many soldiers died too.

John Williams, 22, was a milkman in the South Wales Borderers. He was given leave after contracting and came to Cwmdare. He died the day before the end of the war.

Miner Daniel Davies died two days after the end of the war while on leave in Llandeilo, another veteran of the Royal Field Artillery.

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The Cardiff and Rhondda experience

Most deaths in Wales – as elsewhere – happened in the autumn.

But in Rhondda, an outbreak in July 144 lives in the valley.

Influenza was said to be "creeping" in Ferndale, with 1,300 ugly low-lying miners, along with 1,000 in Tylorstown.

Sick miners were being taken away on ambulances "just as if there had been a big accident," according to one collary agent.

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Rhondda Leader

Dr. John D Jenkins, the medical officer for rhonda, wrote:

"All of us are in many instances struck down and made dependent on the ministrations of neighbors … few families escaped and there was much suffering and sorrow."

The intimacies of living in mining communities themselves – especially being a good neighbor – in particular to the spread of the disease, according to Dr. Jenkins.

He lamented the "well intentional but ill-advised custom of neighbourly inter-visitation between the occupants of infected and unaffected houses".

There was also the habit of spitting "still prevalent in most communities" – a by-product of working with coal.

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FLU FACTFILE

• At least 50m and up to 100m may have died worldwide, including 12.5m in India. Civilian deaths in the UK are estimated at 185,000.
• Although fluent, the outbreak is believed to have begun in Kansas, United States – picked up from fowl and transferred to a military base.
• The genetic characteristics of the virus were identified about 20 years ago.
• Overall, the death rate of influenza over the year reported by the Registrar General was calculated at 4.3 deaths per 1,000; it was as high as 6.6 per 1,000 at its peak.
• Barnsley (8.3) had the highest mortality of 82 county boroughs in England and Wales, followed by West Bromwich (7.7) and South Shields. Hebburn had the highest mortality of 161 towns, followed by Jarrow and Kidderminster.
• Listen – Pandemic: The Story Of The 1918 Flu

In Cardiff, the worst of the epidemic started in October.

Doctors were struggling to cope and some schools were closed. Undertakers were overwhelmed – there was a shortage of coffins – with 37 funerals on one day in October and Army plowing body drafted in to serious dig. There were reports of bodies being transported in carts from the docks. One man was so delirious with fever, he fell to his death from his bedroom window.

Peculiarly, the epidemic did not affect the very young Of the deaths in the city, 44% involved younger adults, aged 25 to 45. Older people are now believed to be more immunized from a similar infection during their lifetime.

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Glamorgan Archive

Annie Harding, 44, from Canton, had been widowed for 10 years and had five children.

The death of heart disease in the heart of the hospital.

Her brother who lived nearby was at her bedside when she died and was feeling "not very big".

A letter from Annie's niece to serve in the Army survives in the Glamorgan Archives. She had no doubt it was the "terrible flu".

"Dad goes to the heart of the world [do that] They would be lucky if he gets lucky then, "she writes.

"There are so many deaths just lately that they were unable to arrange funerals to cope with them".

It is becoming worse in the poorer and the more overcrowded parts of Cardiff.

South Cardiff – which included the docks – had the highest death rate – 29.9 per 1,000.

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Out in the country

Rural areas did not escape and indeed the highest death rate for the epidemic in Wales was in Caernarvonshire in north west Wales.

In Porthmadog, they were "overwhelmed" with work day and night. In Bangor, two local police officers died, while the infection spread among American servicemen at local camps.

But the way could have a devastating impact in the smallest of communities was illustrated in the tight mining communities of the Ogmore and Garw valleys.

In the last week of November, 57 people died. Translated into a death rate, this was the highest in England and Wales in any single week of the epidemic.

Victims included in the Llangeinor in the Garw Valley.

Martha Richards, 30, died the same day as her father Morgan Rees; her mother died of shock and 'flu complications the day after Martha's husband Thomas also succumbed. A sister would die later than winter.

The Glamorgan Gazette reported "despondency" with many deaths reported.

But other areas escaped comparatively lightly. Maesteg recorded "only" 50 deaths and Wales' lowest death rate at 2.1 per 1,000, and only 78 people died of flu in Barry, the second lowest death rate of anywhere in Wales.

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Registrar-General

Could more have been done?

Across Wales, precautionary leaflets were issued. The advice included avoiding sneezing and coughing to spread infection, to boil handkerchiefs, take a bed in a well-ventilated room and to avoid overcrowding or places of entertainment.

This place is closed on some cinemas and theaters.

Epidemiologist Dr. Meirion Evans, of Public Health Wales, says the 1918-19 experience "dwarfs things like the bubonic plaque or even more recent flu epidemics and pandemics throughout the 20th Century".

The sheer scale of the flu 's spread over the parameters of a normal flu season and the speed of symptoms on a minority of patients would have taken the medical profession by surprise.

"At the time, they did not realize it was a viral infection," he said.

"The theory is that it was thought that the way it was spread was so easy – it's so you're going to get it done." probably spreads most effectively on hands, people get to know them and get their hands on their hands. "

Epidemics expert Dr. Jonathan D Quick said something happened with the virus in its second wave to make it more deadly.

"Two things have to happen for an epidemic like that – you need to have something that's very contagious – a virus that humans have no immunity to," he said. "So it was a totally new virus from the point of view of our immune system, so we were really susceptible."

Dr. Evans added: "But obviously things like overcrowding, soldiers in barracks, schoolchildren in dormitories, people going in and out of each other's houses, or looking after people who are sick These are all factors and features in the spread of flu. "

Why did we seem to forget what happened?

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Jan Taylor

Estimates of how many died in Wales go beyond the "official" figure of 8,759, when the numbers who died from related conditions – like Annie Harding – or where influenza was a contributory factor are considered. The final figure is likely to have been at least 11,400.

What was the impact on the affected families at a time when they were reeling from war?

Catherine Taylor, from Cardiff, was born when Kathleen and young son Thomas, five.

Thomas's daughter said they moved to live with relatives.

"My dad, his sister and my grandfather lived with a maiden aunt," she said. "I do not remember my grandfather a lot but he was not full of fun," she said. "I thought it was difficult, it was not easy for any of them.

"Millions of people have never heard about the Spanish flu" I only know because it's my goal.

Dr. Niall Johnson, who has studied the history of the pandemic in detail, suggests the reasons that might explain why influenza has slipped from the collective memory.

"These include the fact that it was 'only' flu – particularly when contrasted with the trauma of the commonplace and the low case fatality rate – most people survived the conflict. overall war experience, and so on, "he said.

"I think all these plays a role." "It's a complex and multi-factorial, rarely is there a single, simple explanation."

Tomorrow: Could a pandemic strike again?