Exploring Scotland’s influenza pandemic of 1918–19: lest we forget

Abstract

The 1918–1919 influenza pandemic resulted in more deaths than any other medical event in human history; the most recent scholarship puts the death toll worldwide at 100 million. Scotland suffered a proportionate loss of life but it was little reported at the time and has been little studied by social historians since. The Great War had been such a traumatic experience that the authorities, and the general public, could take no more tragic news and the result was an uncanny silence. There is little information on the way in which people were affected by the pandemic. Such information could now be valuable as we plan a response to a pandemic of avian flu. This article aims to initiate study of an important episode in healthcare in Scotland.