Coburg High School and the 1919 Spanish influenza epidemic

‘We have been caught up in the whirl of circumstances.’  

(Editorial, The Scribe, Vol. IV, No. 1, May 1919)

Coburg High School. 1916. Official opening of the school.

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society.

I’ve heard stories about Coburg High School being used as a hospital during the flu epidemic of 1919 and am now in the process of trawling TROVE for newspaper articles that will tell me more.

The school building was closed at the start of the 1919 academic year and the students were relocated to their next-door neighbour, the Coburg State School Infant School , as can be seen from the following editorial by Head Master H.P. Bennett in The Scribe, Vol. IV, No. 1, May 1919. 

In the Argus, 24 January 1919, the Coburg Health Officer, Dr R.A. Wallace, noted a serious case of flu in a ‘young lady, whose father, a returned soldier, was in a military hospital suffering from similar symptoms.’ She was admitted to Melbourne Hospital, but no other details are given.

So serious was the situation that in one day, 28 January 1919, Dr Wallace had innoculated 150 Coburg people. (Argus, 29 January 1919)  By 5 February, the Argus was reporting that ‘a school’ (the Coburg Emergency Hospital was located at Coburg High School) had been converted into a hospital and had space for 25 patients.

It was not until early March that Coburg High returned to its work as an educational institution, the Head Master advertising that he would be at the Infant School on Monday 10 March 1919 in order to enrol pupils. (Argus, Saturday 8 March 1919) On that day, the Argus noted that the Coburg Hospital would be closed within a few days as it had only 12 patients and they were nearly all convalescent. (Argus, 10 March 1919) As the situation improved, more emergency hospitals closed, although on 12 March, the Argus reported that there had been three deaths in Coburg in the past few days and there were several more in the following weeks.

Slowly life came back to normal. Schools reopened. Public transport again worked to regular timetables and workplaces worked regular hours. Theatres opened their doors once more. Horse racing resumed.

But then the situation worsened again and by early April, more hospital accommodation was needed to cater for new cases in Essendon, Preston, Brunswick and Coburg and the hospital buildings at Broadmeadows Camp were set up to cater for 150 patients to cater in particular for Brunswick cases. The Broadmeadows Hospital opened on 9 April, to the considerable relief of the overcrowded Exhibition Building Hospital. (Argus, 8 April 1919)

Even so, Broadmeadows could not cover the demand for hospital beds and during April the situation grew so bad that the  Coburg High School Influenza Hospital  was re-opened. (Argus, 10 April 1919) In the Argus on 28 April, it was reported that there were 18 patients in hospital at Coburg. By the 1 May issue of the paper, this had risen to 34 patients. By the end of May, Walter Mitchell, Town Clerk, was putting out a call for children’s cots for the juvenile ward of the Coburg Influenza Hospital. (Argus, 30 May 1919)

Finally, in early August, the decision was made to close the hospital and the High School was able to move back in by the end of the month. (Argus, 7 August 1919) All future cases would be dealt with at Broadmeadows.

I’ve now located details of three patients who died at the hospital: 

Gertie Ray, wife of a returned soldier, 14413 Clifford Lawler Ray, an electrician who had served with the Wireless Squadron. They had married in 1918 and now, less than a year later, Gertie was dead.

Michael O’Farrell, brother of 6273 Private James Patrick O’Farrell, 22^nd Infantry Battalion, who was a warder at Pentridge Prison and a cyclist who competed in the 1922 Tour de France.

23 year old Doris Ogle, sister of  9130 Gunner Joseph Bernard Ogle of O'Heas St., Coburg, who appears on the Coburg Town Hall Honour Board and was a member of the Coburg Rifle Club. 

If you can tell me any more about these three influenza victims, or about anyone else treated in the hospital at Coburg High School, please contact me.

And if you can tell me any more about Coburg High School’s use as an influenza hospital, I would be very interested in hearing from you.

Spanish influenza epidemic and Coburg Cemetery

Coburg Cemetery gates c.1908. 

Image courtesy Coburg Historical Society

The following servicemen died in the influenza epidemic of 1918/1919 and by arrangement with the military authorities were given an official military burial at Coburg Cemetery. Most of them have no connection to this area.

Died October 1918

4675 Pte William Henry Bullivant

2134 Pte John Burrell

5655 Pte Henry Matson

2893 Sgt R.W. Saunders

5199 Pte Francis Edward Sandie

Died January/February 1919

2913 Pte William Alfred Bushby

5658 Pte Albert Roy Butler

6382 Gnr Kevin McAloon

2536 Pte Wm G. Hefford

Died March/April 1919

2810 Sgt Robert Moore

4790 Pte Thomas F. Donnelly

3755 Cpl Henry Fitzpatrick

1399 Pte Percy Harold Ostler

Died in May/June 1919

2276 Pte Arthur O’Dell Lowes

24420 Driver Christopher M. McKinstry

506 Driver John Sandy

Died in July/August 1919

4559 Sgt Thomas Jones

5450 Pte James Joseph Cleary

367 Cpl Edgar Alfred Bell

3809 Cpl William Robert Fuller

2060 Tpr Athelstane Thomas Rowland

11815 Driver William Ness Law

6286 Pte George John Johnson

Sgt Charles Curtis Dedman (died Sep-Dec 1919)

2536 Pte William G. Hefford

I’m also very interested in learning more about where influenza victims of the time were treated. The soldiers listed above were mostly likely treated in military hospitals, but the Melbourne Hospital and Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital also admitted influenza cases, as did the Alfred and St Vincent’s. One of the more unusual venues was Wirth’s Skating Rink (in the area of the present Arts Centre). The Exhibition Building also became a hospital as did Studley Hall in Kew. Schools closed for the first month of the school year and some schools, such as Coburg High School, became impromptu hospitals.

If you have any information on where influenza victims (civilian and military) were treated, what the treatments were and who was involved, especially in the Coburg area, I would be very interested in hearing from you.

If you have further information on any of these men, please contact Friends of Coburg Cemetery, PO Box 329, Carlton South, Vic, 3053 or email: focc.group@gmail.com

The WW1 Centenary Poppy Tile Project

Thanks to the Empire Called and I Answered blog for drawing attention to this project that might interest you.

The WW1 Centenary Poppy Tile Project is an initiative of the The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT), in conjunction with the Returned Services League of Australia (RSL Victorian Branch).

In their press release they say that more than 112,000 Victorians enlisted in WW1 and those who died from causes associated with battle are commemorated by the War Graves Commission.

They say:

Those who returned and then lived out their lives in the community, and are buried in our cemeteries, are not recognised unless their family has recorded this fact in their inscription.  Many graves have been forgotten by families over the years and have become neglected. Younger family members may be unaware that their ancestors served at all unless their family memories and history are strong. 

The aim of this project is to encourage families to ‘renew their links to their family members who enlisted in the Great War and to urge them to place a permanent record of their service on their gravesite.’

The GMCT will produce a packed kit including two small glazed white porcelain tiles featuring a red Flanders Poppy. The tiles can be fixed to headstone or cremation niches.

Costings are still being finalised, but the tile kits are expected to retail at around $10.  Any profits will be donated to charity.

You can read more about the project here.

Moreland State School Honour Board

Image courtesy B. Garrett

2837 Moreland State School opened in 1887 with about a hundred pupils. It expanded rapidly and by the 1920s there were nearly two and a half thousand pupils, making it the largest state school in Victoria. (Vision and Realisation, volume 3, p.96)

Not surprisingly, then, a large number of old boys served in WW1, as can be seen by the size of the school’s Honour Board.

As Moreland is on the border of Coburg and Brunswick, some men came from Brunswick and some from Coburg. 

Some, like Rupert Adams, are listed on this Honour Board, on Coburg State School’s Honour Board and on the Coburg Town Hall Honour Board. He is also in the Coburg State School Soldiers Book and the Holy Trinity Roll of Honour. He died in 1920 from TB which he'd contracted during the war.

The Fleiner brothers (Frederick and Leslie) attended Moreland State School, but lived in Coburg. Their family orginally came from Albury where the brothers were born, but by the time of the 1909 electoral roll, they were living in Linda St., Coburg.

Llewellyn Ambler, who was killed in action in June 1918, is remembered in the Memorial Avenue of Trees at Lake Reserve, Coburg, on the Coburg Town Hall Honour Board and on the Moreland State School Honour Board. His widowed mother Lizzie lived at 168 Moreland Road, Coburg West. 

As an aside, Ambler’s sister Milanie served as a WW1 staff nurse, yet did not make it onto any honour boards in either Coburg or Brunswick. Was she overlooked or did the powers that be decide that nurses were not service personnel? Her mother remained in Coburg until well into the 1920s so the family's connection to Coburg was there during the time the memorials were being put together. Besides, many of the men whose names are listed on the Coburg Town Hall Honour Board, for example, had tenuous links to the district, often appearing on Honour Boards because they played sport in the area, or their parents lived there.

So far in my research, Milanie Ambler and Dagmar Dyring are the only Coburg women I have found who went overseas. I'd be very interested to hear from anyone who knows of other women who went overseas, not necessarily as nurses.

Brunswick Town Hall Honour Board

Image courtesy B. Garrett

This Honour Board is located in the foyer of the Brunswick Town Hall, corner of Sydney Road and Dawson Street, Brunswick. If you are looking for a WW1 soldier with connections to either Brunswick or Coburg, you should check it out, as people often moved between the two suburbs a number of times over their lifetimes.

There are names on this honour board, for example, that appear in the Coburg Memorial Avenue of Trees at Lake Reserve, Coburg. Hector Batt is one of those. Others, such as Reginald Bartram, appear on both the Coburg and Brunswick Town Hall Honour Boards. Bartram is also remembered in the Frankston Avenue of Honour where most of his family lived, reminding us that some men’s service is commemorated in a number of places, so it is always worth looking at the area where a man was born or went to school, as well as where he lived (or where his parents lived) when he went to war or where he lived on his return.

Some of the men listed here were connected to Coburg through their sporting associations. For example, Leslie Agnew and Roderick Aitchison, both Brunswick men, were members of the Coburg Harriers Club.

Victor Aldred lived in Brunswick when he enlisted, but his family once lived in Coburg and he attended Coburg State School then Coburg High School. He is remembered in those places, as well as at the Brunswick Town Hall.

And so it goes.

Apart from anything else, the Brunswick Town Hall Honour Board is a beautiful piece of work in an elegant foyer. If you’re in the area, it’s worth a look just to remind yourself that, despite all the changes to the landscape wrought by the massive high-rise buildings springing up all around us in the suburbs of Coburg and Brunswick, there are still some buildings that retain a sense of continuity and a feeling of serenity and dignity for those who venture inside. 

Old Boy Profiles in Coburg High School magazines

The Scribe, Volume 1, number 1, August 1916.

Thanks to a collaboration between the Coburg High School Historical Group and Moreland City Libraries, you can now view all the Coburg High School magazines from 1916 to 1990 online.

Once you have found your way to the Moreland City Libraries Catalogue, go to the Local History Catalogue and type in ‘Coburg High’. You will see that all the Coburg High School magazines are listed there as electronic resources. In the catalogue information you’ll see a link that says ‘Download the PDF’. Click on that and as long as you have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, you will be able to read the magazine online.

This is a fantastic resource and a wonderful example of how groups working together make it possible for researchers to have ready access to previously underused resources.

The Scribe, Volume 1, number 1, August 1916. 

The Old Boys of Coburg High School go to war

Image of Coburg High School Honour Board, courtesy Coburg High School Historical Group. This Honour Board lists past students who served in both World Wars.

 

The Victorian Education Department only became a provider of secondary education in the early years of the twentieth century and not many children continued their education after they finished Grade 8 at their local primary school.  Those who showed academic promise got their chance at further education, but the fact that parents had to pay £6 a year to send their children to secondary school was a factor and many children had to go to work to help the family. 

Coburg High School opened in 1912, although the school building (opposite the State School and now demolished) was not occupied until 1916. 

These are the old boys who served in World War One. I have added their given names. Most of them were in the first intake of pupils into the school in 1912, just a few years before hostilities began. The rest (Bowen, Buzaglo, Groves, Head, Jarvie, Scott, Sherlock, Tait, Templeton and Walker) began at the school in 1913. Some, like Buzaglo, Dailey, Fedderson, Finchett, Groves, Jarvie and Smith had been old boys of Coburg State School and feature in the Coburg State School Soldiers Book.

V.W. Aldred (Victor)

R. Anderson (Robert)

J.N. Bartley (teacher)

C. Bowen (Cyril)

L. Buzaglo (Leslie)

W.T. Dailey (William)

L. Delaney (Leslie)

H.N. Edwards (Harold)

J.J. Fedderson (John)

C.E. Finchett (Charles)

R.H. Floyd (Robert)

W. Forbes (Wallace)

R.J. Groves (Robert)

A. Head (Arthur)

W. Hill (William)

K.W. Jarvie (Keith)

C. Priestley (Clive)

V. Rapley (Victor, KIA)

A. H. Reynolds (Arthur)

V. Rogers (Victor)

S. Scott (Stephen)

F. Sherlock (Frederick)

F. Smith (Frederick)

C.F. Sullivan (teacher – died on service)

C. Tait (Charlie)

W. Templeton (Wallace)

J.A. Walker (James)