hop0316 t1_j84nfga wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:27 PM

Reply to comment by quantdave in Weekly History Questions Thread. by AutoModerator

Hi thanks I managed to find a death certificate and it’s hard to read but it is listed as something like Inflammation of the Lung so i think it was likely an illness of some sort rather than combat.

quantdave t1_j84p4sl wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:38 PM

That's the pandemic, then: November 1918 was one of the deadliest months internationally (October in the US, but later for most). It hadn't occurred to me that it had reached so far into inner Asia, but troop movements in the war's last year were the biggest source of global spread (and of transmission from the US to Europe in the spring as the US army built up its numbers in France), so here we see the virus's long and lethal reach.

hop0316 t1_j84pk2b wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:41 PM

Yeah it’s pretty sobering, dying that way after making it through the war seems especially cruel as well.

quantdave t1_j84qz2d wrote on February 11, 2023 at 4:51 PM

Indeed, that made it all the more traumatic for those who'd made it through, and I think it's part of the reason it later faded from collective memory in the west (in India it's very much remembered): it was just too much for people to cope with.

gayforager t1_j85xwb6 wrote on February 11, 2023 at 9:49 PM

I laid flowers on the grave of a soldier by me who died 'of disease' on 12/11/18. Always think his is the saddest commonwealth war grave of all those in the cemetery

Helmut1642 t1_j85ztxh wrote on February 11, 2023 at 10:04 PM

It could be a after effect of a being gassed some time in the past.

quantdave t1_j887ldg wrote on February 12, 2023 at 10:55 AM

That's indeed a possibility I hadn't allowed for: the date and place make me think influenza, but a prior gas encounter could be the cause. It could even be both, with the flu rendering an older condition fatal.