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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Plummiegirl on Saturday 23 January 10 16:01 GMT (UK)
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An ancestor of mine died (age 49) in January 1877 - Clapham SW London. Small pox 23 days (it also mentions that it was believed she was vacinated as a child)
What I am wondering, was there an epidemic at this time? Have googled to no avail.
Where they lived would not have been considered a very poor area at that time (probably well to do working class, but not quite middle class!!), they were not living in cramped conditions, she did not appear to go out to work.
Her husband & their 3 children did not die & he remarried & had 2 more sons. How would she have caught this disease?
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Hi
I found this:
http://www.nhshistory.net/smallpox_and_fever_hospitals.htm#The%20Smallpox%20Hospital
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Will give it a try, but she died at home, which I find rather odd. She would have been so contagious & a health risk to others.
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The 1840 Smallpox Vaccination Act made free vaccination available as a charge on the poor rates. Vaccination was, thereby, the first free health service provided through legislation on a national scale and available to all.
But it was only in 1853 that the Vaccination Act introduced compulsory vaccination for all infants within four months of birth, but it contained no powers of enforcement.
The 1867 Smallpox Vaccination Act made vaccination compulsory for all infants, and set out procedures for the registration of successful vaccinations.
The Act came into force on 1st. January 1868, when it became a criminal offence for a parent to continually deny a child vaccination up to the age of 14 years, and to be liable to a penalty, on summary proceedings, of 20 shillings for so doing. The justices could make an order for the vaccination of a child under 14.
The Act required that on a child being registered, or within seven days, the registrar was to give a notice to the parent, or other person, to have the child vaccinated within three months. A certificate of vaccination was to be sent to the Registrar and a duplicate given to the parent.
Stan
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I believe that it was an epidemic according to my tree. All the children were born in London or the Chelsea workhouse. The youngest child, Paul, died in Berkhamstead when the mother returned to her parents. Her parents deaths of smallpox followed in the same year 1877. (One child had died the previous year)
this is part of my tree about Brant, Annie Maria
It appears that Annie Maria Brant (1844 to 1877) did not marry. She had three children Paul Montgomery Tom Brant born 18 Jun 1873 died 10 Feb 1877 of Smallpox with his grandparents who also died of smallpox on the 4th and 17th of Feb that same year, Diana Lucy Hume Brant born 4 Feb 1875 and William Montgomery born 1876 died 1876 of smallpox. And so the only survivor of this Smallpox epidemic was Diana she married Thomas Naylor and died in 1962
Abiam
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Will give it a try, but she died at home, which I find rather odd. She would have been so contagious & a health risk to others.
Hi
If you read the link I posted, it states further down that due to there being a lack of hospital accommodation in 1877, that many people died at home.
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Many thanks for your replies & the information given, it all makes sense now. I did not think she would have been an isolated case.
It looks like it was not one of the larger outbreaks which occurred. Not one that killed thousands across the UK.
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The last great outbreak of smallpox in the British Isles was 1871-72 which caused approx. 42,000 deaths in England and Wales.
Stan
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A couple of my ancestors died about that time - sisters but several years apart. As far as I've read there were several outbreaks of Typhoid and smallpox during the 19th century due to infected water and poor living conditions. According to various references both deseases are similar and come from the same source. Once the government decided to clean up the water in LOndon the deseases became a thing of the past. The outbreaks, from 1826, were mainly confined to ports on the southcoast and London which implies they came in on boats from the continent or further afield. Deptford appeared to have been badly affected as were Dover and Margate. The last oubreak appeared to have been in 1866 but there were further smaller outbreaks in the 1870s.
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The last outbreak appeared to have been in 1866 but there were further smaller outbreaks in the 1870s.
The last great outbreak of smallpox (Variola Major) in the British Isles was 1871-72 which caused approx. 42,000 deaths in England and Wales. The last epidemic of smallpox to afflict the British Isles was 1901-02,this was the last severe occurrence of smallpox on a widespread scale in Britain's history, claiming 1,300 lives in London and 1,400 in Glasgow.
There were no epidemics of Typhoid , but there were Cholera epidemics in 1832, 1848-49, 1853-54, and 1865-66.
Smallpox is transmitted from person to person primarily via contaminated particles from the nose or mouth. Cholera is a water born disease. Typhoid (caused by a bacterium) is most common in tropical climates usually caused by contaminated water or food. There was a typhoid epidemic in the Boer War which killed 13,000 troops.
Details from the "Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence"
Whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox, typhus, typhoid, and tuberculosis were endemic during the 19th century. So there need not have been an epidemic as such.
Stan
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Surely one of the last major outbreaks of smallpox in the UK was in late 1950/early 1960. I remember having to go to the doctors for the vaccination. Mum had hers first to show me that it would not hurt. I screamed the place down so much the doctor told my mum to just take me home, he would not even try while I was in that state. So Mum was vaccinated & I never was!!!!
But I do remember that it was serious at the time. This was in Sth. London.
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The last serious outbreak of smallpox was at Brighton Dec 1950 /Jan 1951 where it was begun by a returned airman who had been properly vaccinated, nearly 51,000 people were vaccinated, but there were only ten deaths. The outbreak was declared over on 7th February 1951. There had been 14 deaths in 1946 and 15 in 1947, which were expected with the end of the war and were widely distributed.
Stan
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Hi Plummiegirl,
My 2x gt grandmother died in 1881 of small pox in Lambeth, London. So although the majority of the epidemic, by the statistics mentioned, was over, it was still claiming lives.
Here's a link but beware, the images are disturbing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
Best wishes, Jimmijam