In 2020 we are experiencing reduced services on the buses, underground, trains and no planes are flying. Back in 1918, an anonymous Gosforth resident wrote to the Newcastle Journal: “Complaining about the conditions on the trams, they were overcrowded and not ventilated. We are told not to use these cars, but to many this is an impossibility!” (6 November 1918)
A medical man wrote to the Newcastle Journal (25 November 1918) signing his letter ‘A Sufferer’, He states that he had 40 cases in his country district all which were traced back to the village dances and that “…something ought to be done to stop these.”
Dr Eustace Hill, Medical Officer of Health for Durham, wrote in the same newspaper that to prevent the spread of infection it was important that at funerals the coffin should not be taken into the building, but left outside in the open air during the service. This practice was observed when the deceased had smallpox, scarlet fever and diphtheria and should be done for influenza cases.
Outside the North East one statistic that was frightening was that on the 31 October 1918 the Registrar General reported the deaths in the last week were 4482. For the London area only! 2225 in Greater London; 1256 in the County of London and 969 in the outer ring!
Class G number 188 tram