Researching the ‘Spanish’ Influenza Epidemic 1918-19: Local and Regional Newspapers A ‘ Ten-Minute Talk ’ for the British Association for Local History Dr Andrew Jackson, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln 9 June 2020 Slide 1: Introduction The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has stimulated new interest in the circumstances surrounding the impact of the ‘Spanish’ flu epidemic of 1918 -19. As in the present, the effects were uneven, and provincial newspapers reported on the contrasting experiences of different localities and districts. Press reports can be explored in order to understand when places felt the passing through of the virus in the closing months of the First World War, and in the conflict’s aftermath, and how local economies, societies, and communities responded. Newspaper accounts also provide insight into the legacy that this pandemic of a century ago left in its wake. This talk draws on articles from the Lincolnshire Echo, available through the British Newspaper Archive. Provincial newspapers performed an essential function. They passed on global and national headlines, sampled the most newsworthy from other regions and centres, and represented as much as possible of what was considered of local significance - political, economic, social and cultural. Content and language were diverse in character. Editorial position could be objective or partial, and range widely in intent: informing, entertaining, critiquing or sensationalising. Slide 2: Chronology The chronology of the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic can be traced through the local media. ‘Remarkable rumours’ of a serious strain of flu reached the Lincolnshire press in Ma y 1918, with speculation that a viral outbreak ‘ravaging among the ranks in the German forces’ might hamper their war effort. When the pandemic did arrive in Britain, it came not with one wave, but three: mid-Summer and Autumn 1918, and into the Spring of 1919. Through June and July 1918, the nation had to come to terms with two generally unfamiliar facts, that an influenza epidemic could break in the warmer months, and that flu could strike people more than once in a year. By June, the epidemic was getting closer to home. ‘The Grimsby District has been invaded by the influenza germ’, ran one report. By July, in Lincoln, there were calls for the summer school term to be ended early. It was a second wave of flu that broke out again in the Autumn. By the end of October, notices were starting to be posted of school closures. By mid-November, there was a sense that enough of the peak may have passed through for some Lincoln schools to reopen in order to celebrate the Armistice and the end of the Great War. A month later, midway through December, local health officials could confirm that the number of new cases had started to fall. The city also appeared to be touched by what would be the country ’ s third wave. As late as February 1919, local public health officials were republicizing appeals for community volunteers to help with households still suffering from the effects of the flu.
Slide 3: Reactions One hundred years ago, it was to local newspapers, posters in public places, and word-of-mouth that many would turn for the latest official guidance. In addition, it was to the district Medical Officers of Health that the local authorities and the public would look for providing professional advice. ‘It is not only a duty to ourselves but also to our neighbours to stay indoors when we have a bad cold or a mild or severe attack of influenza’, stated one officer in the Autumn of 1918 . That October, the Lincoln Corporation published its six precautions to avoid influenza. Some of these rather reflect their times. Others, though, are reflected in the government directives and common-sense measures of 2020. The Medical Officers also started making other appeals to the community for voluntary help. The local authorities, meanwhile, faced decisions over what additional sanctions to impose as well, in order to restrict normal customs and activities outside of the home. By the end of October 1918, edicts fell short of closing all places of entertainment, but admittance to those under 14 years of age was banned, and the full ‘ventilating and disinfecting the buildings and allowing a suitable interval to take place between performances’ were required. By the end of November 1918, political activities were being curbed in the lead up to the 1918 General Election. Slide 4: Responses As today, local people were confronted with unexpected appeals. One famous manufacturer had to publish a notice to shoppers to stop buying its product: ‘those customers who h ave a stock of Bovril should avoid purchasing’. They should leave dwindling supplies ‘for those who have a more pressing need of it at this critical time’. Another notice alerted Lincoln consumers to a further area of shortage, of milk: ‘there is urgent ne ed of economy during the next four months’. ‘Young children and invalids have the first claim’, the feature declared, for the ‘demands of the latter have been increased … by the recent epidemic of influenza’. City residents were informed: ‘it is imperative that other persons should give up using milk altogether, or reduce their consumption’. During the first wave of flu in the summer of 1918, prospects looked bleak: ‘the real antidote has yet to be discovered’, and the disease appeared to be ‘extremely virulent and active’. A few weeks later a report could suggest that at least the virus type had been identified. In the meantime, the local health authorities recommended common- sense and familiar measures: ‘The wisest course when attacked is to go to bed, ke ep warm, and take light nourishing food’. At the same time, though, in less regulated days as ours, drug manufacturers were quick to claim the healing powers of their products. One company stated that it produced the ‘unfailing remedy for the disastrous scourge of influenza now ravaging through the world’. A competitor, by contrast, suggested that it had the ‘lighting’ cure, in the form of ‘the world’s supreme remedy’ for many ailments, including influenza. Slide 5: Aftermath A selection of reports in the Lincolnshire Echo demonstrate how three particular bodies attempted to take on board the lessons of the epidemic for the communities that they represented and served. At the same time, they were also looking forward to the emergence of a stronger strategic direction for national health policy. The Spanish Flu epidemic had drawn attention to the urgent need for reform of higher-level structures. In the midst of the Autumn 1918 wave, Echo readers had been informed of debates in Parliament on the influenza outbreak and the merits of extracting the administration of health from the remit of the Local Government Board.
Reform at a national level was welcomed in a report of the Lincoln Rural Workers’ Insurance Society, which suggested that influenza had given rise to an increase in claims. The body had responsibilities to discharge in meeting the needs of its members, alongside remaining financially viable as an organisation. It expressed hopes for the new Ministry of Health. As the Society put it in 1919, greater centralisation might bring clearer communication at the very least. For the Lincoln Branch of the St John’s Ambulance, there were local changes required and opportunities to be grasped. It announced an ‘important extension of effort’, through taking it s training out to ‘workplaces, offices and other establishments.’ Its new agenda referred to the recent influenza epidemic: ‘how deeply it has been felt that there was something more one could do for the dear ones lying ill’– a sentiment that cuts sharply through to the present. The Lincolnshire Nursing Association, meanwhile, was also in campaigning mood. It lamented the state of confusion over the funding and supply of district nurses, with responsibilities split between the local authorities and voluntary bodies, and conflicting views on the purpose of public health provision: was it a general service or a charitable function? At the same time, the powers of the new Ministry had yet to reveal themselves. For now, ‘a nurse in every village’ was the ambition of the Association’s new appeal . Slide 6: Some references and reflections Bresalier, M. (2020) ‘ Covid-19 and the 1918 “Spanish flu”: differences give us a measure of hope’ , History & Policy, 02 April. Irving, H. (2020) ‘ Blitz spirit won’t help “Win the Fight” against Covid -19 ’ , History & Policy, 20 March. Jackson, A. (2020) ‘ Local historians: #CoronavirusUK needs you! Lifelong learning and community history ’ , Universities Association for Lifelong Learning News , 28 May. Jackson, A. (2020) ‘ The legacy of pandemics in the community: 1918 and 1920 ’ , History Workshop Online, 16 May. Jackson, A. (2020) ‘ Public history, flu pandemics and the provincial media in 1918 and 2020 ’ , Social History Society Exchange, 6 April. Reeve, M. (2020) ‘ DIY facemasks and the domestication of personal protection in the First World War ’ , Social History Society Exchange, 13 May. Shaw-Taylor, L. (2020) ‘ Covid-19: the long view ’ , University of Cambridge. Snowden, Frank (2019) Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present, New York: Yale. Spinney, Laura (2018) Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World, London: Cape.
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