The burial site of many of the people who died from typhoid

The Maidstone typhoid epidemic (11 September 1897 - 29 January 1898), was the largest typhoid epidemic the UK had experienced.

Context

Typhoid is an acute life-threatening bacterial illness, caused by eating contaminated food or water, or by cross contamination with infected faeces and urine. The risk of catching typhoid in nineteenth-century Britain and dying from it was a very real threat. The population of Maidstone was about 34,000 at the time, and at least 1,908 people caugh.[1][2]

Outbreak

The gravestone of two young adults who died in the epidemic.

At least 132 people are known to have died, the majority dying outside the hospitals- either at home or in make shift temporary hospitals.[1] The medical officer stopped keeping a record of the deaths after early October 1897 so more people may have died. The epidemic was a ‘...turning point in public health...’; during the epidemic trials of water sterilisation using chlorination and the first immunisations with typhoid vaccine were carried out in Maidstone.[3]

The Board of Inquiry which was set up to establish the cause of the epidemic, found that it was due to contaminated water from the Farleigh Springs, one of three springs which supplied Maidstone.[1] This had been contaminated by faeces, deposited by typhoid-carrying hop-pickers camping nearby.[4] It was exacerbated by an increased level of rainfall before the epidemic, which created a high level of subsoil water which in turn contaminated the water supply.[5] The enquiry closed on 19 February 1898.[6]

Maidstone Borough Council was overwhelmed by people with typhoid requiring nursing care and had insufficient nurses to care for the typhoid epidemic victims. The Corporation of London supplied 100 nurses, including Edith Cavell, a probationer from The London Hospital to help in the epidemic.[7][8] Nurses volunteered from around the United Kingdom, and Eva Luckes, Matron of The London Hospital sent nine probationers including Edith Cavell to work in the epidemic, as well as others from the hospital's Private Nursing Institute.[8] Prominent nurse reformer, Ethel Gordon Fenwick visited the hospitals and wrote about her visits.[9]

The front of the Maidstone typhoid epidemic medal

The nurses and others who served in the epidemic were either given, or able to purchase a Maidstone typhoid epidemic Medal.

Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert had died from typhoid in 1861, which may explain her donation of £50 to the M.T.E. relief fund.[10]

Borough of Maidstone Typhoid Emergency Hospitals, 1897-1898

Hospitals were opened in a number of sites. Eleven local buildings were used to accommodate up to 339 people:

Hospital Number of beds Date of opening Date of closure
Public Fever 26 29 September Open During Inquiry
Tents                                                                                      12 8 October  Open During Inquiry
Station Road 80 25 September Open During Inquiry
Wesleyan Schools  35 4 October  6 January
Milton Street Mission 24 6 October  Open During Inquiry
Hedley Street School 17 7 October 8 December
Congregational School 20 11 October 11 December
Perry Street Mission 23 9 October 18 December
Padsole  School 37 19 October 24 December
St Michaels School  33 28 October 20 January
St Luke's Mission 32 26 October 6 January   

                                  

Fig 2: Table Produced for the Local Government Board of Inquiry in to the Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic.[5]

Staff who worked in the epidemic

As well as over 270 nurses members of the Army also worked, as well as volunteer cooks, laundry workers and many others.[11][8][12]

Some of the nurses who worked in the Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic (C) Maidstone Museums

References

  1. 1 2 3 Borough of Maidstone, Report to the Local Government Board on the Epidemic of Typhoid fever 1897, London 1898, p.11
  2. ↑ C. Collins, Cholera and Typhoid Fever in Kent, http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/authors/004.pdf , accessed 8 February 2016.
  3. ↑ Stanwell-Smith, R (1997-11-13). "The Maidstone typhoid outbreak of 1897: an important centenary". Weekly Releases (1997–2007). 1 (29). doi:10.2807/esw.01.29.01027-en. ISSN 9999-1233.
  4. ↑ Borough of Maidstone, Report to the Local Government Board on the Epidemic of Typhoid fever 1897, London 1898, p.30-31
  5. 1 2 Borough of Maidstone, Report to the Local Government Board on the Epidemic of Typhoid fever 1897, London 1898
  6. ↑ "'Nursing Echoes'". The Nursing Record and Hospital World. 19: 159. 19 February 1898.
  7. ↑ Edith Louisa Cavell, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/5, 147; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London.
  8. 1 2 3 Sarah Rogers, ‘The Nurses of the 1897 Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic: Social Class and Training. How representative were they of mid-nineteenth century nursing reforms?’ (Unpublished Master of Letters dissertation, Dundee, March 2016)
  9. ↑ Fenwick, Ethel (9 October 1897). "'Nursing at Maidstone'" (PDF). The Nursing Record and Hospital World. 19: 287–288 – via RCN.
  10. ↑ Hales, I. (1984). "'Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic'". Bygone Kent. 5 (4): 217–223.
  11. ↑ "The Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic 1897-1898". Retrieved 6 March 2023.
  12. ↑ Rogers, Sarah. "Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic". Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
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