DIGBY FAMILY STORIES
  • Home
  • FROM IRELAND TO AUSTRALIA
    • Introduction
    • Life at the Big House
    • Life of the workers
    • Landlords and tenants
    • Leaving Ireland
    • Finding love
    • War
    • The Digby Album
  • EDIE'S WAR
    • A dreadful time for mothers
    • 1915
    • 1916
    • 1917
    • 1918
    • 1919
  • LIBRARY
    • Correspondence
    • Documents
  • Blog
  • Contact

Pandemic 1918/19 ...  sounds so like now

4/7/2020

1 Comment

 
The following are extracts from Edie's letters on the influenza pandemic of 1918/19.  
 
December, 1918
Everard’s ship was due at Freemantle yesterday but I have heard nothing further. The transports are coming in every day but a lot of them have to go into quarantine for this wretched influenza. I hope Everard’s is a clean ship.
 
January, 1919
Everard arrived in Sydney on Boxing Day - they were quarantined in Melbourne as I feared.
 
February, 1919
We are all going around liked masked burglars in Sydney on account of the influenza, everybody masked down to the smallest child. All schools and churches, picture shows and theatres are shut, also all public houses. All race meetings are stopped and auction sales except those in the open. Mask wearing is very trying in this hot weather so I go out as little as possible. All Red Cross depots are closed but I am spinning at home for the knitting machines.
 
It was unlucky this wretched influenza should break out just as he came home, as it keeps us from going out. He might like surfing or walking or something.
 
The law on masks has been relaxed and we only have to wear them on trams, trains and in the cabins of ferries. I am sorry to see influenza is so bad in England. I only hope John escapes it as he is so liable to colds
 

Picture
Adjusting to having a man in the house again, after his being away at war for nearly 5 years, Edith looks as if she is practising social distancing.
​
1 Comment

    News Blog

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Categories

    All
    'A Dreadful Time For Mothers'
    'Always Hoping Your Ancestors Will Be Good People'
    Brisbane
    Clare Larman
    Correspondence
    'Edie's War'
    Famine In Roscommon
    George Digby Of Drumdaff
    Maureen Hartley
    'Mother's Song'
    Nadine Budge
    Old Treasury Building
    Performances
    Phoebe Hartley
    Post-script
    Presentations
    Sharing Stories - Roscommon 2018
    Spanish Flu
    'Til The Boys Come Home'
    Violet&Rose Productions

    Archives

    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    October 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015

    RSS Feed






    ​Header Photo Acknowledgement - From the Roscommon Library Facebook Page 24/8/18-Photographs courtesy Glynn Photography, Castlerea.  #heritageweek18"
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.