Spanish Flu

Longtime FAD friend William Paterson has written in with a request regarding the impact on Durban of the Spanish Flu which swept the world after WWI. He wrote:

Hello Allan

Could you put out another general request for source material covering the Spanish Flu and how it affected Durban’s populace (1918 / 1919)? I have ‘Epidemics’ by Howard Phillips, which is thorough and does give some localised background but not much anecdotal stuff.

[I stumbled over a short FAD piece recalling that Durban Girls College pupils were obliged to gargle every morning with salt water before classes. They had to stand in the sun near Musgrave Road for ten minutes at lunchtime in the belief that this would likewise improve resistance to ‘The Spanish’. “Only” one girl died from it.

Anything else along these lines? The Blacks and Indians suffered the most.

Chin Chin
William