Bovril, Whisky and Gravediggers: The Spanish Flu Pandemic comes to the West Midlands

‘Spanish Flu,’ killed more than 50 million people and affected millions more, across the globe during 1918 and 1919. Soldiers, POWs and the workers in war-industries all fell victim to this pandemic which brought fear and death to villages, towns and cities on the home front, even after the guns of the First World War battlefields had fallen silent.

A failure to recognise and deal with the magnitude and threat the virus posed was exasperated by a wartime shortage of trained doctors and nurses and led to an inadequate medical response to the crisis. There were long queues outside pharmacies and doctors’ surgeries. The despairing population turned to charlatans, patent medicines, food supplements even alcohol to prevent or cure any symptoms of the flu.

Keywords: Spanish Flu, Worcester, Pandemic