Spanish flu epidemic claims Annie Matheson (1888-1918)

On this day in 1918, my great aunt, Annie Matheson, died in the Perth Royal Infirmary in Perth, Scotland, a victim of the Spanish flu. She was just 30 years old. My grandfather's younger sister, Annie was named after her mother.

Very sadly, Annie died 12 days after giving birth to her fourth child, John Keith Graham. Did she contract Spanish flu before she went into labour? Did this develop after she gave birth? We don't know. I learned only small bits of her story in fragments over many years, first from my mother, and afterwards from my aunt.

Annie was born at Rafford in Moray, where my great grandparents lived for several years. In 1908, when Annie was 19, she gave birth to a son, Andrew, in Nethy Bridge, Abernethy and Kincardine. The father, also an Andrew, was 18, and wanted very much to marry Annie, but for reasons that were never clear, she refused him. Annie raised Andrew in the family home or, perhaps her mother was raising Andrew while Annie worked in service. At some point, Annie met the man whom she married in Glasgow in Jul 1914. Perhaps she was in service in Glasgow. She had an older half sister, Catherine Matheson (1869-1950), living there with her husband, a Glasgow policeman.

Annie's husband, Andrew Arthur Wallace (1871-1930) was a career soldier, having served in India, where he married his first wife. That marriage ended in divorce. With the outbreak of the First World War in August 1915, he soon was fighting in the trenches of France and Belgium.

Annie gave birth to a son in 1916, who was named after her father, Frank. Her son Frank grew up to become a soldier and was a POW of Japan in the Second World War. Frank was followed in 1917 by a sister, who remarkably, has recently celebrated her 101st birthday. And then came the birth on 29 Oct 1918 of John Keith Graham Wallace.

At some point after his birth, Baby John was moved to the Perth Royal Infirmary. Was it so that Annie could continue to nurse him despite being so terribly ill? Who was looking after her two other Wallace children?

When Annie died on 9 Nov 1918, she became a statistic. She was one of 228,000 Spanish flu casualties in Great Britain (that link notes that it is suggested that the epidemic was spread across Britain in part by soldiers returning from France). A quarter of Britain's population was lost. This, on top of the 886,0000 British soldiers lost in the First World War.

Annie was buried at Jeanfields Cemetery in Perth on 12 Nov 1918. After Baby John died on 30 Nov, he was buried with her on 2 Dec 1918. Her widower married a third time in 1919, I expect soon after he was demobilized. He needed someone to care for his children. He went on to have a further five children by his third wife before he died in 1930.

My aunt described Annie as having dark curly hair. This she knew from my grandfather's description of his sister. I would have liked to have known more about Annie.

The never ending story continues....




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