The 1918-1920 Influenza Pandemic began in early 1918 and travelled around the globe in waves for the next two years. Over the course of this period, almost a third of the world’s population had contracted the flu, and between 25 and 50 million people had died. The pandemic spread rapidly, in part due to the mass movement of people during the final year of World War I, and was notable for its disproportionately high mortality rates among young adults, including those returning from the war. In New Zealand, the pandemic is more commonly known as the 1918 Influenza Pandemic because of the short duration of its effects here. By the time it had died out in December 1918, it had already killed 9,000 New Zealanders. 

Provisional List: Victims of the 1918 Flu Pandemic in New Zealand

Over the last two years, Marion Dickinson, one of our volunteers at Online Cenotaph, has been working on transcribing and researching casualties of the pandemic in New Zealand. Her research has made use of a project between Ancestry and local researcher Geoffrey Rice where they aimed to compile the ‘first comprehensive list’ of New Zealanders who died during the pandemic.¹ While the list is incomplete and Online Cenotaph has identified a number of other people who are not included, it has nevertheless increased our understanding of the impact that influenza had on New Zealand’s service personnel, whether they were on active service, in training, or had been discharged.  

The research within the list has focused on deaths from influenza among the military community, who were often returned servicemen that had only recently come home. Out of the list of around 5,000 casualties, Marion has been able to identify 580 who were either serving or had previously served in the armed forces. In addition, her research has uncovered information about hundreds of New Zealanders who served in the First World War, both with New Zealand and overseas forces. Their stories range from the normal to the unusual, the exciting to the everyday, and they reflect the breadth of experiences found among New Zealand servicepeople of the period.

You can view the list on Online Cenotaph here. This list will likely increase as we identify more personnel impacted by this global pandemic.

Private Howard Chetham

During the pandemic, many New Zealand newspapers printed lists of people from the area who had contracted the flu, and whether or not they had recovered. In December 1918, the Northern Advocate published a short obituary for Private Howard Chetham, ‘a young American who saw service with the New Zealand forces.’² His story spans the globe and shows the connections between New Zealand and the world. 

In 1916, Chetham was living in Northcote, Auckland when he enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force as a British subject resident in New Zealand. Interestingly, even though he was described as American in his obituary, he had stated that he was born in Toronto, Ontario. His birth, registered in Springfield, Massachusetts, confirms that he was American, and his father had immigrated from England and resided in Springfield until his death. Chetham’s reason for hiding his place of birth is unknown, but it could have been as simple as avoiding the hassle of revealing that he was not a British subject. 

We do not know why Chetham decided to cross America and the Pacific to end up in New Zealand, but the urge to explore does seem like a common theme in his family. Chetham’s father had served with Lord Kitchener and the British army in the Middle East in the 1880s, and later in South Africa. When World War I broke out, he returned to England and enlisted once again.³ Supposedly, the last time the senior Chetham saw his son was in Europe, crossing paths in a military camp half a world away from their homes. 

Howard Chetham was not alone in moving so far away from home, and his siblings had traveled similar paths. He had a sister in California as late as the 1940s, while another brother had made his way to New Zealand – he was listed as Chetham’s next of kin, and when Chetham returned from war, it was with this sibling that he stayed.⁴  

Chetham returned to New Zealand after being injured by a landmine, and his recovery occurred at the home of his older brother, in Whangārei. Chetham lived in Northland for the next year, until he passed away in November 1918. Chetham was among six dead recorded in the Northern Advocate, and is buried at Kioreroa Cemetery, Whangārei. 

Private Stanley Anderson

While the influenza pandemic was for the most part finished in New Zealand by 1919, there were still outbreaks occurring elsewhere. In Australia, the pandemic had been delayed by a quick government response that used quarantines and border controls to prevent the virus entering the country in 1918. But when it eventually entered Australia in 1919, Private Stanley Anderson was one of those who died. 

Anderson was originally from the town of Lyttelton, where his father worked as a sail-maker in the port. In 1915 he was also employed as a sail-maker, and living in Melbourne where he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force. Anderson was assigned to the Royal Australian Naval Bridging Train. It was a specialist unit of Naval engineers, akin to the Army’s sappers, who were responsible for the erection of wharves and docks at Gallipoli that allowed for fresh supplies to be brought in, and for the eventual evacuation of the forces there. 

When the Naval Bridge Train was demobilized in 1917, Anderson returned to Australia, disembarking in Melbourne in early July, and returning to civilian life. His mother contacted the Australian forces in December, writing that ‘since [he returned] I have had no word as to his whereabouts’ and that she hoped they could ‘releave [sic] all anxiety which at present exists’.⁵ She clearly feared for her son’s safety, and the Australian officials provided her with an address in North Carlton which he had given them.  

There is no more correspondence that indicates whether Isabella Anderson located her son, but she did contact the military offices again. This time, in November 1919, her enquiry was related to the medallic entitlement of her son – he had sadly died of influenza at the No. 11 Australian General Hospital in Caulfield, Melbourne only a few months earlier. 

Nurse Marian Macandrew and Sister Gladys Robinson

Soldiers were not the only service personnel involved in the pandemic – New Zealand had a large medical contingent who were caught up in it both at home and overseas. Nurses were at the frontlines of the pandemic, and were more exposed to infection than the general population. Many nurses had already served overseas, and now that they were back in New Zealand, they saw it as their duty to tend the ill again when called on. During the pandemic, it is estimated that as many as three quarters of New Zealand nurses were ill with influenza, and 41 died.⁶

Nurse Marian Macandrew was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs) and travelled to London to provide nursing services with the Order of St John. When she returned to New Zealand, she took up another position as ‘matron of one of the emergency hospitals’, co-ordinating the care and response to the pandemic in that area.⁷ Another nurse, Sister Gladys Robinson (later Harris), served during the war with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service on the hospital ship Maheno. When she returned to New Zealand, she continued her service at the military hospitals in Trentham and Featherston during the pandemic.⁸

These stories are only a few of the hundreds of New Zealand servicepeople who were caught up in the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Their stories are unique, but representative of a larger cohort of New Zealanders who had experienced the world through war, and in the aftermath found the world coming home to New Zealand. They are also stories that would not have been found if not for the research that contributed to the creation of the list, and the work that Marion carried further, connecting those names with the ones on the Online Cenotaph. This project has helped us bring these stories, and many more, into the light. 

References

¹ "Jason Reeve: compiling the first list of NZ's Spanish flu pandemic victims." Radio New Zealand, 23 September 2018. 

² "Personal." Northern Advocate, 2 December 1918, p.2.

³ "Veteran of Three British Wars Dies." Springfield Republican, 17 August 1944.

⁴ "Onerahi.", Northern Advocate, 2 April 1918, p.1. 

⁵ "NAA: B2455, ANDERSON S N." National Archives of Australia, 2024.

⁶ Pamela Wood. "Overworked and overwhelmed: How NZ nurses coped with the 1918 pandemic." The Spinoff, 6 May 2020. https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-05-2020/overworked-and-overwhelmed-how-nz-nurses-coped-with-the-1918-pandemic

⁷ "Nurse Marion Macandrew." Kai Tiaki: The Journal of the Nurses of New Zealand, vol. VIII, no. 1, 1926, p.27, PapersPast.

⁸ "Mrs. Gladys Harris." Kai Tiaki: The Journal of the Nurses of New Zealand, vol. XVI, no. 3, 1923, p.125, PapersPast.

Further Reading

Gow, Virginia. Life on the curve: stories of essential workers in times of war. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 15 September 2020. Updated: 12 April 2024.

Legel, Paula. Influenza Pandemic 1918. Auckland War Memorial Museum - Tāmaki Paenga Hira. First published: 5 June 2015. Updated: 11 June 2015.