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Death
Fairwell /Bacup Cemetary
The last resting place of many of our ancestors killed through the various virulent diseases of their times. Opened in 1862, the Cemetary was run by the local burial board and had 3 chapels one for the Catholics, one for Church of England and one for Nonconformists. The first person to buried in the new cemetery was a Hannah Haworth of Britannia aged 46 and married. Her grave is number Gen B 279.
Deaths From Smallpox
Families of Greenwood Howarth and Marsden July 1903
Deaths From Flu
Pte. Richard Tattersall
Bacup Times Report of Local soldiers death from Influenza.
Mrs Heyworth Howorth
Bacup Times Victim of Influenza Mrs Howorth December 1918
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Did one of your ancestors die of one of the terrible diseases listed below? .If so you may just find them listed on this page.
Smallpox, Measles, Scarlet Fever, Cholera, Whooping Cough, TB, Typhoid Fever, common diseases that helped to see many of our Bacupian and Stacksteads ancestors to early graves. In 1874 a Smallpox epidemic in Todmorden led the way to the opening of a Smallpox Isolation Hospital situated in Sourhall in a building called Peel Mill capable of treating 16 patients the cost of which was shared with Bacup funds being available through a joint Hospital Committee that had been set up in 1877. By 1890 23 patients had been sent from Bacup to be treated at the hospital at a cost of £1,217.11s9d.
The Isolation Hospital Sourhall 1902.
Bacup Hospital Charities Fund
In 1882 when Bacup received it's charter of Incorporation the Bacup Hospital Charities Fund was set up, collections were made throughout the community by events called Hospital Saturday and Hospital Sunday and from the working class community by collections in the Mills, Factories and Churches. The money raised was then sent as a grant to various hospitals such has Rochdale Infirmary, Birch Hill Hospital Manchester Royal Infirmary, Southport Convalescent Home, The Devonshire Hospital in Buxton and Sourhall Isolation Hospital as well as donations being made to the Bacup Sick Nursing Association. Consequently any patient needing treatment or care from Bacup could then be sent to one of these hospitals and receive treatment or have the attention of one of the nurses from the Sick Nursing Association.
In 1915 it was found that many more children were being referred to Rochdale Infirmary following Medical Examinations carried out in schools which brought to light many cases of eye problems in the children. It was therefore decided that Rochdale Infirmary should receive £5.00 extra from the fund. Another case in 1915 concerned a young girl suffering from *St Vitus Dance who needed to go into the convalescent home in Southport the home however was filled with wounded soldiers from the war. It was decided that extra nourishment be provided to the girl who's family was very poor by the Sick Nursing Society.
Moorlands Infirmary at Rawtenstall.
Devonshire Hospital Buxton
The Ninth Annual Report on the public Health of the Borough of Bacup in 1939. In October 1940 The medical officer for the Borough of Bacup J W Mc Kinney presented his ninth Annual Report on the health of the Borough.
The report covered statistics for the year of 1939 and stated that the general health of the borough was most satisfactory and that there had been 25 fewer cases of Diptheria and that those reported had been of a milder nature than previously. The general conditions of the schools was fair however sanitary arrangements for some of the schools needed attention. There were 30 houses in such a state that they were deemed dangerous or unfit for human habitation.
The principal causes of death during 1939 were.
25 Cases of Diptheria no deaths compared to 58 Cases in 1938. 14 Cases of Scarlet Fever no deaths compared to 23 Cases in 1938. 5 Cases of Pneumonia compared to 14 in 1938 and 9 deaths had occurred. No deaths from Whooping Cough but a fair number of Cases. No Cases of Smallpox.
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Disease
1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic
Firstly know as the the " Three day fever " the Spanish Flu would become a indiscriminate killer of approximately 50million people world wide in 1918-1919. Starting in the trenches of France in the Spring of 1918 soldiers complained of sore throats, headaches and loss of appetite and whilst the infection spread very quickly there were little fatalities to begin with. However the summer of 1918 saw the symptoms become much more severe with many soldiers developing Bronchial Pneumonia, and Blood Poisoning. In Britain the disease had been called 'Flanders Grippe'; in Spain, 'Naples soldier'; in Germany, 'Blitz Katarrh,' or lightning cold; and in Switzerland, 'La Coquette,' because it 'passed its favours around so freely.' In Poland it was the 'Bolshevik Disease,' and in Ceylon it was 'Bombay Fever.' In Hong Kong, it was termed 'too much inside sickness.' Perhaps the name 'Spanish flu' persisted because neutral Spain was unpopular with both warring sides, which were hit equally by 'a foe that cut down troops and sent them behind the lines to first aid stations and hospitals.' The first case to hit Britain was in May 1918 in Glasgow soon spreading to other towns and villages killing 228,00 people within the first few months. Even in the severe autumn wave, 80 per cent of patients suffered only the usual three-to-five-day illness initially a cough and stuffy nose, but later a dreadful ache in every joint The Spanish Influenza of 1918 and muscle leaving them feeling as if they 'had been beaten all over with a club,' with a temperature as high as 40°C. If the illness progressed no further, the victim was usually 'back to normal' within a week. But pregnant women recovered more poorly. The prognosis was said to be 'severe' for women who aborted or went into premature labour. One study showed that a total of 26 per cent of 1,350 female victims suffered miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature labour. Approximately 20 per cent of all influenza patients developed pneumonia. Half of those died. The pneumonia often developed rapidly, with some patients experiencing a 'heliotrope colouration of the lips and face.' 'Men literally choked to death with pulmonary oedema (swelling), the lungs so swamped with blood, foam and mucous that the faces were grey and the lips purple.' A grey victim might cough up as much as two pints of yellow—green pus per day trying to clear his or her lungs; in so doing, one patient was reported to have ruptured the muscles in his rectum. The purple-black skin was terrifying to doctors, nurses, and family alike. Dr Albert Lamb of New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital described the new arrivals as 'blue as huckleberries and spitting blood. Cyanosis (a bluish discolouration of the skin caused by oxygen deficiency) nearly always meant death within 24—48 hours.
Bacup Times December 1918 Flu Advice
Bacup and the Flu
November 1918 saw regulations come into force in Bacup, it was hoped that these regulations would help prevent the spread of the disease.
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