ABSTRACT
Almost everyone agreed that 1917 had been the worst year of the war, regardless of the United States of America’s entry into the conflict against Germany in April: it was the year of many losses in the U-boat campaign, upheaval in Russia, the bloodbath of Passchendaele and few signs of Field Marshal Douglas Haig’s prophesied collapse of the German army. 1 At home, there were food queues, shortages of coal, cigarettes and paper, dimmed street lights and fresh waves of bombing raids from the Germans’ new Gotha heavy aircraft. The Cabinet began planning for a conflict that would continue into 1919 (Churchill thought 1921 was a more accurate date). 2 The year 1918 had opened with gales and snowstorms pummelling southern England with many fallen trees and some damage to shipping, though fine weather had been reported in Scotland. There were even accounts of a decline in drunkenness. 3 By June, however, the country was bracing itself as the first outbreaks of the Spanish Influenza, or ‘the plague of the Spanish Lady’, were being reported. Rumoured to be spread by American soldiers, the disease displayed a virulence hitherto unknown and was thought by medics to be another form of malaria. Schoolchildren sang of ‘Enza’: I had a little bird Its name was Enza I opened the window And in-flu-enza. Lloyd George was struck down (and nearly died) with the disease in September, and was incapacitated for two weeks in Manchester Town Hall, where he had just delivered a speech. Lloyd George recovered well, but the disease went on to kill 228,917 Britons before it lost its strength in the summer of 1919. 4
