After four years of war, the human population of the world was attacked by a mysterious illness that came and went with seemingly no reason and killed more people than the world war itself. That illness, influenza, was dubbed the “Spanish influenza,” not because Spain had it first, but because the neutral country of Spain did not have media censorship so this country was the first in Europe to publicize the outbreak.
The illness perhaps was a pig or bird virus that jumped to humans. It attacked the world’s population in three waves during the 1918–1919 period. (However, one theory is that it had appeared even earlier, perhaps in France in 1917 in an outbreak of what was thought to be unusually-lethal epidemic bronchitis.) The “Spanish flu” perhaps appeared first in China in February 1918. In March it was reported in the Japanese Navy. A short time later it appeared among soldiers in France.
In North America, it first appeared in a U.S. army training camp in March. These soldiers apparently carried the sickness overseas with them. In April, the ’flu appeared in Spain and received its name. By May, it was in Britain, where it made 10,000 sailors ill and rendered the British fleet incapable of leaving port. During this first wave, the sickness was mild and mortality no more than you would expect. That is, the flu deaths were mostly among the unwell, young or elderly.
The second wave, a more dangerous form of the flu that attacked even healthy young people, emerged in September apparently first in Sierra Leone, U.S. and France. The illness spread quickly. It appeared in Canada, in Québec, that same month. Newspapers reported of its progress across the country towards Alberta.
On October 4, Alberta’s Health Minister A.G. McKay predicted that “probably 30 to 40 per cent of the population will be attacked, and each community may expect to have an influenzal epidemic of from four to six weeks.” On October 18, the Edmonton Board of Health disallowed all public gatherings — closing all the theatres, schools and churches, and the University of Alberta.
The flu arrived in Edmonton the next day. A week later, many Edmontonians had already died, and almost 2000 sick were confined to their homes. Doctors and nurses were over-stretched and only managed with the help of volunteers. The Ursuline Sisters in Edmonton helped many of the sick during this outbreak. All but one of them became sick themselves.
Hospitals overflowed. Pembina Hall at the University of Alberta was taken over for use as a hospital. During the epidemic, three hundred were admitted to this emergency hospital, with 72 dying. Assistant mathematics professor William Muir Edwards worked as a volunteer there until the flu killed him. Some believe ghosts said to inhabit this building are a carry-over from that tragic time.
The old King Edward (Grandin Street) School was also used as a nursing centre during this crisis.
On October 22, a trainload of soldiers destined for Russia passed through Edmonton. A flu-sick soldier was taken off the train and quarantined in Strathcona’s Connaught Armoury.
On October 30, the Edmonton Bulletin reported that the city had an “outbreak of measles, especially prevalent on the southside. In some cases the disease has attacked influenza patients.”
Historical records say that the death toll in the flu outbreak was often due to pneumonia attacking the sick. About 20 percent of those with the flu caught pneumonia, and about half of those died.
Frighteningly, in other cases, the flu killed seemingly instantaneously. There were cases of people going to bed feeling fine and dying in their sleep; others were at work and then slumped over dead.
“You either pulled through, or you died within three days,” George Lewis Davies recounted later. My Strathcana book in one part portrays George Davies as a young lad stealing bananas from John Walter’s steamboat. He had, by 1918, graduated from the Strathcona Collegiate Institute and had become a teacher in a rural school. With his school closed due to the epidemic, he returned to Strathcona where he nursed two ill couples through the flu.
His volunteer work, and that of thousands of others, helped many pull through who might not otherwise have survived. It is reassuring to think that if a pandemic breaks out today, health services, communications and government ability have improved since 1918 and would be more able to cope.
But as Eileen Pettigrew pointed out in her book The Silent Enemy, Canada and the Deadly Flu of 1918, “we can only hope that we would be as wealthy again in terms of human kindness.”
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Edward Ring, aged 12, son of P.D. Ring, 7210 - 106th Street, died of the disease on Wednesday morning. The funeral will take place at Wainwright & Jackson’s parlors, South Side, Thursday morning, at 10 o’clock.
…From the Edmonton Bulletin, October 31, 1918
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By November 2, there were 140 dead in Edmonton. In the city, 8000 were sick, or about one in seven of the city’s approximate 53,000 residents. Businesses had a hard time staying open with such reduced staff.
Shortages caused by the flu epidemic, in addition to wartime rationing in effect at the time, made life hard for those struggling to survive in those trying times. In November, the Canada Food Board, in charge of food rationing, issued new regulations that consumers had to lessen their purchases of wheat flour. It said that the industry had been counting on Eastern mills to produce an adequate supply of wheat flour, but the mills had “been forced to close due to shortage of workers during this epidemic.”
The Food Board “Substitutes Order” said that sellers had to sell at least one pound of substitutes for every four pounds of wheat flour sold, and buyers must buy one pound of substitutes for every pound of wheat flour they bought. The regulations listed these substitutes for wheat flour: oat flour, barley flour, corn flour, rye flour, cornmeal and rolled oats for housewives’ use. Also “A Limit of 68°F [20°C] temperature for buildings” was ordered on November 7 by C.A. Magrath, Fuel Controller in Ottawa, due to a critical shortage of hard coal. The federal government was not in session in autumn 1918, so it was relatively inactive in responding to the flu crisis.
Another change in day-to-day lives forced by the epidemic was this edict: “Stores and offices in large cities of Alberta are ordered to remain closed every day until 1:00 pm.” This was ordered by the Alberta Board of Health “to give the employees a chance of being of more assistance in their homes and localities in stamping out the ’flu epidemic.” The late-opening law was in effect from November 8 to November 16.
It was at this time that Whyte Avenue merchant R.B. Douglas was appointed purchasing agent for Alberta’s government liquor stores, “in place of F.G. Forster, resigned.… The medical men throughout the province since the influenza epidemic have been prescribing liquor to a larger extent than formerly with the result that the business of the government liquor stores have increased… Mr. Forster was in favour of the government going out of the liquor business and so recommended,” according to the November 9 Edmonton Bulletin.
The November 9 Edmonton Bulletin reported “The clergy of the South side divided that part of the city into districts, each pastor being responsible for his respective part.…Reverend E.W. Edmonds is responsible for Allendale. Reverend Simons has the district from 78 Avenue to 82 Avenue between 109 and 112 Streets. This organized effect is having a two-fold beneficial effect in that each pastor not only knows his district but also knows what has been done and what is to be done.”
That same issue of the Bulletin also reported that “From information given The Bulletin at Queen Alexandra School on Wednesday, the epidemic in that district is declining rapidly.… One special appeal for help comes from that district in the nature of a request for clothing. In a family that has been stricken with the epidemic, there are five boys between the ages of two and 10 who are in need of winter apparel. Any persons who could spare any clothing suitable to this case would be conferring a favor by leaving same at Queen Alexandra School from which they will be distributed.”
Queen Alexandra was one of six district relief centres established in city schools. From these relief centres, medical staff or trained volunteers were sent out to treat serious cases. Automobiles and drivers stationed in the centres were available on a 24-hour basis to render assistance.
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The November 7, 1918 Edmonton Bulletin reported “James Craig, 24 years, returned soldier, died at Pembina Hall.” This was just one of the many brief notes published in the newspapers every day as the flu claimed its victims.
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An advertisement for Cowan’s Cocoa at this time says “See that the children are provided with all they require. It makes them robust and protects them from epidemics.”
…From November 9, 1918 Edmonton Bulletin
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During the peak of the flu outbreak in Edmonton, Germany surrendered, ending the war. Despite laws forcing the wearing of gauze face masks and the ban on public meetings, city residents celebrated the event flamboyantly.
By mid-November, the epidemic had passed its peak. By the end of the month, the ban on public gatherings was lifted. The University of Alberta re-opened in early December.
A third flu wave swept the world, within a year of the first outbreak. Although less severe than the second wave, it still claimed lives. For example, Provost suffered two attacks in March and April in which 70 became sick. It seems that most came down with ordinary influenza or grippe, but four died from the more dangerous strain in April. It was thought that travelling entertainers who had been to the community were to blame for the outbreak.
The flu claimed the headlines, but several sicknesses attacked Edmontonians around this time. A roughly-simultaneous outbreak of encephalitis lethargica, or sleeping sickness, may have been connected to the flu epidemic. This illness is described in Oliver Sacks’ book, Awakenings.The outbreak apparently first appeared in Austria and France in 1915 and spread over the world, sweeping Canada in 1919. It mysteriously died out by 1930.
Diptheria, measles and scarlet fever also broke out in Edmonton in 1918. There was a serious outbreak of smallpox in 1919, as well.
In the October–November outbreak, 30,000 Albertans, or about one-third of the province’s residents, became ill, and 3259, one in ten of the sick, died. That is, about one in every 30 Albertans died, in only two months. The death toll was lighter in Edmonton and heavier in northern, isolated and Native settlements. (A non-Albertan example is the death toll in one settlement in Labrador, where 80 percent of the inhabitants died.)
Strangely, almost half the victims of this dangerous flu strain were in the 20-to-40 age group. Around the world, an estimated 100 million people died.
Edmonton’s flu death toll was 615, including Health Minister Alexander G. McKay who died in early 1920. Jack McKernan, owner of the Princess Theatre, passed away from the flu at his home, 11551 University Avenue, on February 18, 1919, before his 40th birthday.
A.B. Chapman succumbed to the flu on November 15, his Whyte Avenue saddlery shop passing onto his sons who re-named it Chapman Brothers’. Chapman’s eldest son came home from the war to run the business but died himself in 1924 at the age of 28. His younger brother A.A. “Buster” (1902–1983) helped run the store starting at the age of 16 and ran it until his death 67 years later. Bus’s two children became lawyers and set up practice next door to the saddlery store.
Clarence A. Curtis, teacher at the Strathcona High School and the second-in-command of the South Side Company, 101st Regiment, died on November 16 of the flu. (Five years earlier, he had been the first person to live in the house that still stands at 11046 - 87 Avenue, when he was “master” of the Strathcona Collegiate Institute. This house has been declared a Municipal Historic Resource.)
The financial cost of the flu was staggering. Some businesses were forced to temporarily go out of business (theatres and so on); some had trouble finding customers (hotels and public transit); some had trouble getting product to sell; all had trouble finding staff. The City of Edmonton was out of pocket $25,000 for nursing supplies and also took a hit for an amount three times as much for lost revenue and other costs.
An intriguing incident arising from the flu outbreak is the disappearance of Felicia Graham, a Strathcona high school teacher. (see other blog for the solution of this mystery.)
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Laura Spinney's book Pale Rider The Spanish flu of 1918 and how it changed the world came out in 2018, just a year or so before COVID hit us.
she actualy hinted that the time was right- although obviously not knowing how right she was to be.
She said a pandemic is likely to happen in an La Nina period, which she says lasts two or three years, and notes that the world went into LA Nina in 2016.
(p. 276-7)
She also noted that a pandemic that starts in Feb to Oct would have an easy way of it as vaccines are generally invented based on info gathered in Feb and are ready for market in October.
In COVID's case, COVID was thought to be strictly Chinese affair until late 2019 or early, 2020. vaccines were hastly prepared in wartime-style rush programs. My personal recall was that COVID vaccines were ready earlier than October 2020.
But actually Wiki "COVID -19" says first vaccine not ready until Dec 2020.
The first case in Canada was in late Jan 2020. But apparently it was such a rare fish and so much vaccine was needed that it took many months to get the first vaccines ready.
Experts believe that between Confederation and COVID-19, five influenza pandemics affected Canada:
in 1890 (see notes below),
1918 (the Spanish flu),
1957 (simultaneous with polio outbreak),
1968,
2009.
Of course, the flu epidemics of 1918 and COVID-19 were the worst. (Canadian Encyclopedia, "Pandemics in Canada")
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back to Spinney Pale Rider:
"1889 “Russian” flu — 3 waves, mild-severe-mild. 1 million. First one to be statistically profiled. It also attacked adults, not just elderly and children. Apparently Edvard Munch Scream was flu-inspired"
those were notes of a blogger who reviewed Spinney's book.
Peel's PP search in newspapers 1889-1892
keyword: flu and ill many results
but flu and epidemic yielded no results.
flu and influenza one result EB, July 4, 1891 report from Victoria settlement : - a mild form of influenza is prevalent among our horses. Spinney indicates that bird and pigs are common reservoir of flu with strong strains periodically breaking over into human population. (perhaps horses too!)
keyword Russian and flu yielded nothing on Russian flu
flu and sick no useful result
grippe [another word for flu] and dead:
Prince Albert Times Jan. 3, 1890 Montreal: Hon. Laurier and Premier Mercier both suffering from grippe.
Qu'Appelle Progress jan. 24, 1890: 30 prisoners and ten guards sick with grippe at
Kingston Penitentiary. "Disease is growing in its intensity."
also this brief note: "Influenza is still common in Montreal and Mayor Grenier is one of its latest victims." 50 cases of it at the Belleville Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. [Grenier survived the influenza, eventually dying in 1909.]
Prince Albert Times, Feb. 21, 1890: PA telegraphist Rankin back at work after bout with grippe...
[for some reason no newspaper reports of grippe in 1891!?
perhaps need to narrow search to just grippe and not use dead as keyword]
Prince Albert Times, Jan. 27, 1892 Toronto: hope fading for Assessment Commissioner Maughan, and Judge Street also falling fast. both originally ill with la grippe.
EB Nov. 24, 1892 several cases of grippe reported at Winnipeg.
anyways it seems flu/grippe was widespread but apparently never described as Russian flu, at least not in Western Canadian newspapers.
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there seems to be no interview online asking Laura Spinney what she made of COVID and the prediction she had made when writing the 2018 book that perhaps four pandemics would occur in next hundred years.
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