In 1971, when I first travelled overseas, Australians were required to carry an ‘International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP)’, also known as the ‘Carte Jaune’ (yellow card). This was an official vaccination report recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO).
My card was printed by the Government Printing Office in Canberra in 1969. My first vaccinations, on 19 April 1971 were for smallpox, cholera, and typhoid. I received boosters on 3 May 1971. I was not vaccinated against yellow fever.
My yellow card with vaccinations that were required for international travel from 1971 to 1989
The Certificate was introduced following the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation of 1933, meant to protect communities and air crew against diseases spread by air travel. The convention established regulations to prevent the spread of plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus and smallpox..
The World Health Organisation was formed in 1946 and the Fourth World Health Assembly adopted the International Sanitary Regulations (alias WHO Regulations No. 2) on 25 May 1951, replacing the earlier International Sanitary Conventions. International certificates of vaccination replaced the old International Certificates of Inoculation and Vaccination.
In 1969 the International Health Regulations (IHR) were adopted by the WHO’s World Health Assembly. The 1969 IHR focused on four diseases: cholera, plague, smallpox, and yellow fever. A model International Certificate of Vaccination was introduced. My Certificate was in line with this.
After smallpox was successfully eradicated in 1980, the International Certificate of Vaccination against Smallpox was cancelled in 1981, and the new 1983 form lacked any provision for smallpox vaccination.
Greg’s certificate was issued by the Australian Department of Health and printed in 1984. It includes the statement, “WHO declared on 8 May 1980 that smallpox had been eradicated. Smallpox vaccination is therefore no longer justified. It may even be dangerous.”
My husband Greg’s more recent yellow card includes the advice that smallpox was eradicated in 1980 and also information about protection against malaria.
I can’t detect my smallpox vaccination scar on my upper left arm anymore. It looked similar to this one, though this scar in the photo is from the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin or BCG vaccine which is used to protect people against human tuberculosis. Photo from Flickr licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
My travels since 1989 have not required my vaccinations to be recorded on a certificate.
Recently I’ve been doing a bit of research about Greg’s 3rd great grandfather James Cross (c 1791 – 1853). I have been greatly helped by contributions from several of Greg’s cousins who are also interested in their Cross ancestors. Here’s what I’ve turned up.
On 28 December 1819 James Cross married Ann Bailey (1791 – 1860). At the time he was employed as a brewer. He lived at Penketh, about ten miles east of Liverpool.
Between 1820 and 1822 James and Ann had seven children, two girls and five boys:
John Cross 1820–1867
Thomas Bailey Cross 1822–1889
Ellen (Helen) Cross 1824–1840
Ann Jane Cross 1826–1827
James Cross 1828–1882
William Grapel Cross 1832– 1876
Frederick Beswick Cross 1833–1910
James and Ann’s third child, the eldest daughter, was called Ellen. She was born 9 February 1824 and baptised in the Chapelry of Hale on 22 August 1824. The baptism register records James’s occupation as road surveyor and their abode as St Helens. Ellen Cross was Greg’s 3rd great aunt.
St Mary’s Church HaleBishop’s transcripts Reference Number Drl/2/19 from Lancashire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1911 retrieved through ancestry.com
On the 1841 census James Cross, occupation farmer, was living with his wife Ann and three of his five sons: Thomas, James and Francis. There is no mention of daughters.
The eldest son, John, was a surgeon’s apprentice on the 1841 census living with Thomas Gaskill surgeon in Prescott.
James and Ann’s son William Grapel Cross was possibly at school. He was then about ten years old but ten years later he was with the family on the 1851 census. There is a William Cross at a grammar school in Whalley in 1841. The age and Lancashire location seem to fit, and the fact that he later got a job as an Admiralty clerk indicates he was well educated.
Ellen and her sister Ann Jane who was born in 1826 were not with the family.
Ann Jane Cross was born 28 June 1826 and baptised 16 July 1826 at St Helens, Lancashire. There is a burial on 14 May 1827 at St Mary, Hale, Lancashire, England of an Anne Jane Cross with Age: 1 Abode: St Helens. She seems likely to have been Anne the daughter of James and Ann.
There is a marriage of Ellen Cross daughter of James Cross, husbandman of Eccleston, in 1842. Ellen was a minor and this is consistent with the 1824 birth-date as she would then have been 18. A husbandman’s status was inferior to that of a yeoman. The latter owned land; the former did not.
Marriage of Ellen Cross 2 June 1842 at Rainford from Lancashire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1936 retrieved through ancestry.com
Ellen could not sign her name, nor could her husband and the witnesses. From what I know of the family of James and Ann Cross it seems unlikely that Ellen could not sign her own name. I am also not able to identify the witness Elizabeth Cross.
I found an 1840 burial at St Thomas Eccleston for a Helen Cross. Her age is given as 16. This is consistent with Ellen’s 1824 year of birth. Her abode is recorded as Eccleston. There are no other clues to suggest that this Helen Cross was indeed Ellen the daughter of James and Ann Cross.
Burial of Helen Cross age 16 of Eccleston on 14 April 1840 at St Thomas Eccleston. Retrieved from Lancashire, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1986 through ancestry.com
To confirm my hunch that Ellen daughter of James and Ann was Helen who was buried at Ecclestone in 1840, I ordered the death certificate of Helen Cross from the UK General Register Office.
death certificate of Helen Cross from the UK General Register Office: Year 1840 Qtr Jun District PRESCOT Vol 20 Page 620
Helen Cross, aged 16 years 2 months, daughter of James Cross, clerk, died of consumption on 10 April 1840 at Eccleston. This Helen’s age matches that of Ellen born February 1824.
Different documents give different occupations for James Cross, but I believe that for each of the instances that it is the same person.
Tuberculosis
Consumption, now more commonly known as tuberculosis, is an infectious bacterial disease, usually affecting the lungs. A common symptom is a persistent cough, which in later stages brings up blood. The patient, with no appetite, loses weight. Other symptoms include a high temperature, night sweats, and extreme tiredness. Tuberculosis was usually a slow killer; patients could waste away for years.
An 1840 study attributed one fifth of deaths in England to consumption. It has been claimed “Tuberculosis was so prevalent in Europe and the United States during the period comprising the end of the 18th century through the first half of the 19th century that almost every family on the two continents was affected in some way by the disease.”
In 1838 the death rate in England and Wales from tuberculosis was around 4,000 deaths per 1 million people; it fell to around 3,000 per million in 1850. The improvements in the death rate have been attributed to improvements in food supplies and nutrition as the improvements are before knowledge of the cause of the disease or any treatment was available.
Graph of Death rates from respiratory tuberculosis in England and Wales from Integrating nutrition into programmes of primary health care, Food and Nutrition Bulletin Volume 10, Number 4, 1988 (United Nations University Press, 1988, 74 p.) retrieved from http://preview.tinyurl.com/lyodwzf
The World Health Organisation reports that today tuberculosis is still one of the top 10 causes of death and the leading cause from a single infectious agent. Worldwide 1.5 million people died from TB in 2018; over 95% of cases and deaths are in developing countries. The WHO estimated 58 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2018 and the WHO hopes to eliminate TB by 2030.
Scrimshaw, Nevin S. Integrating nutrition into programmes of primary health care, Food and Nutrition Bulletin Volume 10, Number 4, 1988 (United Nations University Press, 1988, 74 p.) retrieved from http://preview.tinyurl.com/lyodwzf
Further down the page there was a discussion of plans for a Victory Ball to be held two months off, on 5 June, with a dance for juveniles on the following night. The proceeds were to be in aid of the Cheer-Up Society, an organisation for the aid and comfort of Australian soldiers passing through Adelaide. My great grandmother Mrs A.M. Cudmore, who was on the executive committee, keenly supported this effort on behalf of returned men.
At first it was planned to hold the Ball in the Exhibition Building on North Terrace, but this was being used as an isolation hospital for influenza patients.
Though a Peace Ball was cancelled in Sydney because of the influenza outbreak, Adelaide’s Victory Ball went ahead at the Adelaide Town Hall.
On the afternoon of the ball Mrs Cudmore supervised a rehearsal for debutantes.
Frock worn by the Mayoress (Mrs. C. R. J. Glover) FEMININE VANITIES (1919, June 7). The Mail (Adelaide, SA : 1912 – 1954), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article63761531
Depicted in the sketch … is the elegant gown worn by the Mayoress at Government House on the occasion of Admiral Viscount Jellicoe’s visit, also at the Victory Ball on Thursday. This frock is composed of supple black satin, with an overdress of tulle, weighted by steel and gold embroidery. The corsage permits a peep of gold tissue between the less diaphonous fabrics with what is at hand. A short length of widish insertion, rather open and bold in design, can be turned to endless account.
1919 Adelaide: Guests attending a ball (not specified), possibly for debutantes in a hall decorated with garlands of flowers in Adelaide. Image retrieved from the State Library of South Australia PRG-280-1-29-65 and subsequently colorised using the MyHeritage photo colorizing tool.
The influenza epidemic, it seems, had little effect on Adelaide social life.
15,000 people died in Australia from the 1918-19 pandemic out of a population of 5 million. 40 per cent of Australia’s population was infected by the influenza but its subsequent death rate of 2.7 per cent per 1,000 members of the population was the lowest recorded of any country during the pandemic. Worldwide 50 to 100 million people died. The first Australian case was recorded in January 1919 in Melbourne,
Victoria. The virus spread to New South Wales and South Australia, with these States closing their borders to limit the spread of the virus.
Travellers from South Australia to Melbourne were not allowed to return home to South Australia. Quarantine was offered in association with soldiers who were being quarantined on Kangaroo Island and in two other camps. Eventually several hundred travellers from Adelaide were allowed to travel back to Adelaide on heavily guarded trains having signed declarations that they had taken every precaution not to be exposed. A quarantine camp was set up on Jubilee Oval next to the Torrens River. There were 100 military tents and more accommodation was set up in the adjacent Machinery Hall. About 640 people who had been visiting Victoria and elsewhere were quarantined at the site.
It was said that many people quarantined at Jubilee Oval treated the experience as an extended holiday and, cleared of the infection, were reluctant to leave.
Below the well-advertised cheerfulness, however, was an ugly truth. The Spanish flu was extremely dangerous. In South Australia 540 people died of the flu, the equivalent in today’s population of 15,000. No Australians have yet died of COVID-19.
Exhibition Building, North Terrace, Adelaide about 1900. The Jubilee Exhibition Building was just north of the camp and was turned into an isolation hospital. [State Library South Australia image B 1606] (The building was demolished in 1962)
In 1919, just eleven years old, she composed a hand-written newsletter called ‘Stuffed Notes’ [sic. I think because her toys were stuffed animals], about an imaginary hospital which had many cases of Spanish flu. On 14 March 2018 I blogged a transcription of her newsletter. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the ebb and flow of cases of influenza she recorded in her newsletter follow much the same pattern as South Australian cases as a whole.
Kathleen and her older sister Rosemary about 1919
Looking just at the mentions of Influenza (my transcription retains the original spelling and grammar)
February: There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.
March: No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.
April: There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering.
May: The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.
June: Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.
July: There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. … Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.
Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.
We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.
September: There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.
October: There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.
November: No more cases of Influenza have accrued.
Here is a graph of the number of influenza cases in Kathleen’s hospital:
Here is a graph of South Australian influenza cases:
Graph of South Australia influenza notifications, January–December 1919 from Kako, M., Steenkamp, M., Rokkas, P.J., Anikeeva, O. and Arbon, P.A. (2015). Spanish influenza of 1918-19: The extent and spread in South Australia. Australasian Epidemiologist, 22(1) pp. 48-54 Retrieved from the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/
The plaque was to honour Reverend Francis Tuckfield (1808 – 1865) and his wife, Sarah Tuckfield nee Gilbart (1808 – 1854), who threw their house open to passengers from the Larpent who had been afflicted by fever.
Francis Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia
Sarah Tuckfield, portrait in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia
The Larpent had arrived in Geelong on 28 June 1849. Among the passengers was James Oddie (1824 – 1911) with his wife and child. The Larpent’s emigrants had been selected by the Presbyterian minister John Dunmore Lang, a promoter of emigration. During the voyage many passengers became ill with what was thought to be typhoid. Sadly both Oddie’s wife and child died.
James Oddie was among the earliest gold miners arriving at the newly opened Ballarat diggings in August 1851. He became very rich and was later a great philanthropist. He founded the Art Gallery of Ballarat. His portrait hangs there.
One of my first cousins four times removed was Eleanor Mary (Nellie) Niall (1858-1891). She was the first cousin of my great great grandfather James Francis Cudmore (1837-1912).
Her father was James Niall (1823-1877), son of Daniel James Nihill (1761-1846) and Dymphna Nihill nee Gardiner (1790-1866). The Nihill family emigrated from Ireland to Australia in 1835, settling first in Tasmania, then moving to South Australia.
James Niall was an auctioneer and pastoralist. In 1857 he married Eleanor Mansfield (1833-1883) at Trinity Church, Adelaide.
They had eight children:
Eleanor Mary Niall 1858–1891
James Mansfield Niall 1860–1941
George Franklin Niall 1862–1875
Alice Louisa Niall 1863–1876
Charles Arthur Niall 1864–1888
Robert Gardiner Niall 1870–1932
Dymphna Niall 1871–1871
Margaret Rebekah Niall 1872–1875
Eleanor Mary, known as Nellie, was the oldest.
Her brother James Mansfield Niall (1860-1941), who became a successful pastoralist, was the only child who married and had children.
In 1875, at the age of 13, George died from what was described as “anaemia“. His illness and death were noted by his aunt Rebekah Nihill (1817-1901) in her diary:
2 Jul 1875 : George Niall very ill of swelling in the glands of his throat.
28 Aug 1875 : Rec’d a letter from Nelly Niall telling us dear George Niall died last Tuesday the 24th inst, whilst taking a drink of water. We feel his loss much as he was a very intelligent boy and extremely clever and cheerful.
4 Sep 1875 : Our brother James and his wife came. They both looked sadly cut up after the loss of their dear children, particularly their dear boy George.
Charles died in Sydney as a young man aged only 24. I am not sure what caused his early death.
Robert went on to the land as a grazier and station manager in Queensland. He died in Sydney, unmarried.
Dymphna died aged 5 months of convulsions. According to the diary of her aunt Rebekah Nihill, Margaret Rebekah, known as Rebekah, died when she was 3 of scarletina and diphtheria.
In 1877 Nellie’s father James died at the age of 54. Nellie’s mother died in 1883 aged 45 years.
On 13 November 1891 Eleanor Mary (Nellie) Niall died of typhoid. She was 33. (Typhoid is a bacterial disease, spread by eating food or drinking water contaminated by the faeces or urine of patients and carriers.)
The authorities kept a close watch on infectious diseases. There was no major outbreak of typhoid at the time, but Eleanor’s death was noted by the South Australian Board of Health, as was one other death from typhoid in the same week.
BOARDS OF HEALTH. (1891, November 20). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 3 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198423918 (Click to enlarge)
I am sorry to say that I have not been able to find out more about Nellie and her siblings. She is not mentioned in any digitised newspaper reports that I have seen. I have not found any photograph of her or mention in any family papers I have access to. I know almost nothing about her.
Sources
I am grateful to my cousin Robert Niall for sharing his information about the causes of death of Nellie’s siblings and providing extracts from the diaries of Margaret and Rebekah Nihill, the sisters of James Niall, Nellie’s father.
My husband’s great great grandmother – one of them – was Eliza Morley née Sinden (1823 – 1908).
Eliza was born about 1823 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, to William Sinden (c. 1870-1839), a coach driver, and Mercy Sinden née Rose (1779-1852). She was probably the youngest child of at least six.
At the time of the 1841 census Eliza was living with her widowed mother Mercy Sinden at Albourne, Sussex, just over six miles south of Cuckfield.
On 17 September 1848 Eliza married John Morley (1823-1888) at Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, less than a mile east of Albourne.
In 1851 the Morley family was living in Keymer, 2 miles east of Hurstpierpoint. They were living at 97 Railway Terrace. John was a railway labourer. Keymer junction was an important railway junction on the line between London and Brighton. John and Eliza had one daughter, aged one, and soon afterwards, another son, William.
In Victoria the family lived at Collingwood, an inner city suburb of Melbourne, until at least 1861. There Eliza had five more children.
In 1862 John Morley was renting a house in Tucker Road, Moorabbin, then a village fifteen kilometres or so miles south-east of the city centre.
In 1864 Eliza’s seventh child was born in Brighton, a suburb about eleven kilometers south-east of the city.
In 1866 Eliza’s brother George emigrated to Australia and came to live with Eliza’s family. George Sinden (1811-1884) never married and all George’s and Eliza’s other siblings had died. George Sinden died in 1884 aged 73.
In 1888 Eliza’s husband John died from a malignant disease of the stomach after an illness of three months. Eliza, then 65, was living at 7 Evelyn Street, East Bentleigh, with her daughter Anne who had married Henry Sullivan in 1887. Three of Eliza’s seven children had survived into adulthood.
In 1886, in addition to the house in East Bentleigh which was then rented by John Morley, Eliza was renting 2 1/2 acres of land nearby, where she seems to have kept a few cows. In 1890 it was reported that she had been fined 7s 6d plus 2s 6 d costs for straying cattle.
On 23 April 1908 Eliza died after an illness of ten weeks at the age of 85 from cancer of the pharynx and of asthenia, a medical term for abnormal weakness. She was buried in Brighton cemetery with her husband John. Their graves are unmarked.
Public Record Office Victoria; North Melbourne, Australia; Series Title: 2348/PMicrofilm Copy Of Rate Books, City of Moorabbin [copy of VPRS 583] [1862-1900] viewed through ancestry.com
BRIGHTON POLICE COURT. (1890, February 22). The Caulfield and Elsternwick Leader (North Brighton, Vic. : 1888 – 1902), p. 5. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66871567
Among various documents kept by my family is “Stuffed Notes”, the hand-written newsletter of an imaginary hospital, composed in 1919 by my grandmother Kathleen Cavenagh Cudmore (1908–2013), when she was eleven.
Kathleen’s father was Arthur Murray Cudmore (1870-1951), an Adelaide surgeon. Her mother, Kathleen Cudmore (1874-1951), was much involved in charity work.
“Stuffed Notes” seems to be based on overheard scraps of dinner-time conversation, which Kathleen adapted and re-worked into the newsletter of a 50-bed hospital ‘for any diseases, infectious or not’. She herself was Matron.
Kathleen and her sister Rosemary
The transcription below retains my grandmother’s spelling and grammar.
Stuffed Notes
The Hospital telephone number has changed from 36 to 4506.
This Hospital is for any diseases infectious or not. There is a nicely equipped isolation hospital for infectious diseases.
Stuffed Notes will be published monthly. The charge is a 1d a year.
The Hospital will hold fifty beds. Children can be kept at the hospital when they are convalescent if parents wish.
The Doctors are
Dr Binks
Dr Bronte
Dr Sam
Dr Bingo
The chief Nurses are
Nurse Wills
Nurse Wagga
Nurse Sambo
Nurse Coon and many others
K.C. Cudmore (Matron)
Nowra Public School converted into a temporary hospital for pneumonic influenza epidemic, 1919 (Illustrating hospitals of 1919, photograph from the collection of the Historic Houses Trust)
…..
We are pleased to send you this months Stuffed Notes.
There has been one case of influenza which was fatal. But we are glad to say no more cases have been proved influenza.
All the other patients all getting on very well, all but Caecer the Stuffed whos eye is still bad. Bruin has got Typhoid Fever very badly but we think he will not die.
All in the hospital send there love.
K.C. Cudmore
…..
The Hospital has had one death a little boy died of a injured Spinal Cord. The accindent accured through a motor driven by Mr Jackson of Henly Beach ran into a trap driven by Bellring and Caeser the Stuffed. Both were rendered unconious and taken to the Animal Hospital. Bellring is getting much better and soon will be going home.
All the other patients are getting better
No more cases of Enfluenza have accured.
All the Hospital sends their love.
KC Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
If you would like all the 1919 numbers of Stuffed Notes in a little book you can do so by writting or Telephoning 4506.
There has been one more case of Influenza. But he is recovering. There are 5 cases of Diphtheria but they are all getting better all but two who are dangirus.
Nurse Wells is going for a holiday so Nurse Wagga is taking her place.
All the patients are improving all but two Bellring and Possy the Stuffed.
The hospital sends their love.
KC Cudmore
(Matron)
Ward 11 Keswick Military Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia 1919 Photograph from the Australian War Memorial
…..
The are 8 cases of Influenza 2 deaths and 3 dangious cases all the rest are getting better.
The Mayor gave 10 pounds to the hospital on Saturday. The Govenor 5 pounds.
Bellring and Possy are much better and will leave the hospital on Friday. Nurse Wells has come home and will go on with her dutys as before. Dr Binks xrayed Bruin yesterday but found nothing broken only a bone bruised.
All the Hospital sends its love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
Five cases of Influenza have accured 1 death and 2 dangirus the other two a getting better the outbreak of Influenza is very bad at present.
One of the convalescent patients, Poggy Quack Quack, was out for a walk with one of the nurses, saw his mother across the street and run to meet her when he was in the middle of the street a motor run over him.
He was taken to the Hospital were he died. It was not the nurses fault for she tried to catch him.
All the Hospital sends thier love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
There are 10 cases of Influenza 3 deaths and 5 dangrous cases. Nurse Wagga is ill with Influenza so Nurse Sambo is taking her place. Dr Bingo x-rayed Little Teddy, he has a broken back. He is slowly getting better. Nurse Wagga is is not so very dangious but she is fairly bad.
The Hospital has given 20 pounds for the Navy.
All the Hospital sends thier love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
Influenza
Cases = 12
Deaths = 4
Dangious = 3
Mild = 5
Nurse Wagga is quite well now and has gone away for a Holiday a Henly Beach.
We are not removing the Influenza cases to the Isolation Hospital at the Exhibition. As we heard the conditions are not very good.
All the Hospital sends thier love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
Septeber
On Monday Bellring was in a tran when it clided with another the two motormen were killed as well as 10 passengers & many injured. The rams caught alight which made the tragedy more awful. Bellring was taken to the Hospital where he is in critical condition between Life and Death. Some times he seems better sometimes worse. every attention is being had to him that can be done & we still have hope of his recovery.
There a five cases of Influenza but they are all recovering.
Nurse Coon has gone for a holiday so Nurse Wells is taking her place.
All the patients send their love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
Crowd gathers to observe the damage following a collision between a motor bus and an electric tram near Hurtle Square, Adelaide, on 13 March 1915. Both vehicles burst into flames and Walter Simmons, aged 5, received fatal burns. Photograph from State Library of South Australia.
…..
We are glad to say Bellring has received but is not well enough to be discharged.
Little Teddy is back is much better and will go home on Friday.
Nurse Coon is home from her holiday.
There were no deaths lately and most of the dangerous cases are getting better.
Possy has to have his fingers amputated as he slammed it very badly in a door.
All the Patients send their love.
K.C. Cudmore
(Matron)
…..
No more cases of Influenza have accrued. Dr San x-rayed Bellring nothing serious was the matter only a broken arm.
A fete will be held on the 11th Nov at he hospital ground there will be Brand Pies, sweet stalls, work stalls Hoop-la and other stalls
There are 5 cases of measles but none of them are dingoes.
All the Patients are getting much better.
All the Hospital sends their love.
K.C. Cudmore
…..
This is the last number of Stuffed Notes this year, it will soon be Christmas.
We want to give a little present to the children that are in the Hospital at Christmas. we may have a Christmas tree with the presents hung on and wheel it round for the children to see and take the presents off and give them to the children.
All the Patients are a little better.
A happy Christmas to you.
All the patients & staff send their love.
K.C. Cudmore
Christmas tea Keswick Military Hospital 1919. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial
A Christmas party at Parliament House, Adelaide, for soldiers’ children. In the foreground is Mr Samuel ‘Sammy’ Lunn, M.B.E., a well-known worker for soldiers at the Front and, after the war, for returned soldiers and their families. c. 1919 Photograph from State Library of South Australia.
On Friday 30 May 1879 a five-year-old girl called Hannah Fish died at Lamplough, a small gold-mining town near Avoca in central Victoria.
Her death was sudden and unexpected, and a coronial inquest was held the next day.
Hannah was the child of an unmarried daughter of William Fish, a miner, who deposed that the thumb of her left hand had become inflamed a couple of weeks previously, that her grandmother had bathed and poulticed it, that within a few days she was retching, and that he had given her four teaspoons of fluid magnesia (magnesium hydroxide in suspension, a laxative and antacid) to settle her stomach. He did not call a doctor or take her to see one: ‘I did not have any medical attendance for her, but would have brought her to the doctor yesterday afternoon had she lived’.
An Avoca doctor called William Selwyn Morris stated that he had seen the body. He believed that the cause of death was ‘inflammation of the absorbent vessels’: her lymphatic system had been overwhelmed by the infection.
A paragraph in the Avoca Mail on the following Tuesday reporting the inquest added the information that there appeared to be severe ‘gathering’ (accumulation of pus) on one of Hannah’s fingers. This rapidly extended to the arm, then to the chest.
Morris offered the opinion that the wound may have been caused by a venomous insect and that he had no reason to believe that ‘violence or [deliberate] injury’ had caused Hannah’s death.
Deposition by William Fish, grandfather of Hannah Fish from Inquest into the death of Hannah Fish held on 31 May 1879 at Avoca. Page 1
Without knowing more about the circumstances it is impossible to say whether and to what extent Fish and his wife were responsible for the little girl’s death. Two teaspoons twice of a mild laxative seems a culpably inadequate treatment for a spreading suppurating wound, which would most certainly have produced a high fever and great agony. Even if she had been attended by a doctor, it was decades before antibiotic drugs were available and in common use, so the result may have been the same.
The blame for poor Hannah’s untimely death, if we can speak of blame, must be divided somehow between an indifferent universe, a cruel and incompetent God and, perhaps, her callous and careless family.
If William Fish did not do enough to save his dying granddaughter, it is satisfying to learn that in 1893, fourteen years later, a miner called William Fish from Lamplough was fossicking for gold in an old working, and
“… while below in a stooping position the earth above him
gave way and forced his head towards his feet, breaking his back and several of his ribs.”
It took him a day to die.
Hannah Fish (1874 – 1879) was the daughter of Hannah Fish (1856-1891) and was the niece of Alfred Fish (1860-1932), who later married Rachel Young (1865-1918) and also the niece of Alfred’s brother Thomas Fish (1872-1949) who married Rachel’s sister Alice Young (1859-1935).
References
Inquest from Public Record Office Victoria: VPRS 24/ P0 unit 399, item 1879/202 Female
Remembering two of my great grandfathers who were at Lemnos near Gallipoli for Christmas 1915. The Adelaide Advertiser of 25 December 1915 reported: “The latest report with reference to Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Cudmore, was at the hospital at Lemnos has been suffering from typhoid fever, is that he is making satisfactory progress under the, care of Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel de Crespigny.”
The group includes Colonel de Crespigny, Colonel Green (Sydney), Colonel Stawell, Major Kenneth Smith, Major Sherwin (Melbourne), Major Trethowar (Western Australia), Matron Wilson (Queensland), Major Lockhart Gibson (Sydney), Major Morton (Sydney), and Captain Graham (Sydney).
Photos by A.W. Savage. From The Sydney Mail, 29 March 1916.
Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny was my great grandfather. He enlisted in 1915 at the same time as another of my great grandfathers, Arthur Murray Cudmore, and my great uncle Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring. My post about Arthur Murray Cudmore at http://ayfamilyhistory.com/2013/04/arthur-murray-cudmore-world-war-i_28.htmlcovered their enlistment and voyage from Australia.
Daily experiences of the 3rd AGH were reported in the Nepean Times through correspondence from Corporal Gates.
