Training and Typhoid

[reilly]

Hi

I have a great Uncle - Patrick Glavin service number K/26347 stoker 2nd class - he is listed on the CWGC website.

I have downloaded his service record and he only spent 3 months is the RN and died of typhoid while serving at the shorebase HMS Vivid.

A couple of niggling questions

1. He was a stoker 2nd class at the age of 17 - was this the entry level for a 17 year old?

2. Is it likely that he picked up the illness while in training? If so - wouldn't this be a serious problem in a naval training establishment in 1915?

3. Or is more likely that he was suffering from the illness when he first joined? Shouldn't the medical examiner have picked this up when he first enlisted?

Any facts, thoughts or comments appreciated?

Thanks

Brian

[historydavid]

Brian,

The illness usually has an incubation period of 10 - 20 days, after which the individual become extremely ill. Even a services doctor would find it difficult not to spot that a man was ill with a temperature upto 40 C.

Typhoid is an infection that is aquired either by eating or drinking contaminated food (from faeces of an infected person) or by transmission from a carrier of the illness (a previously infected person who had only a mild reaction and did not seek treatment).

It does not seem likely, therefore, that your great uncle had typhoid when he joined the navy.

Have a look at http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseases/typhoid.htm for an overview of typhoid.

Best wishes

David

[joseph]

Brian,

Stoker 2nd Class is the lowest entry level normally the earliest he could be rated that was 171/2 years old. As for the Typhoid if he got it others would normally get it as well, very infectious.

HMS Vivid mid 1915 was the monitor Marshal Ney, a picture here and would be anchored in Devonport near Plymouth.

http://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/monitors.htm

Regards Charles

[per ardua per mare per terram]

HMS Vivid was the RN barracks at Devonport. The nominal 'ship' (for flying the Comander-in-Chief's flag etc) that represented the barracks during WW1 was the gunboat Cuckoo.

Marshal Ney was the nominal ship from June 1922-1/1/34, when she took on the same role for Drake During 1915 she was being built, launched, completed, commissioned and worked up.

If they spotted the typhoid in time he would have been in isolation in hospital, but it would have infected others too by then.

[reilly]

Thanks for the information Gents.

My origional assumption was that Patrick had caught typhoid after joining the Navy. So that reconfirms my thoughts.

Terribly sad really - considering he was only 17.

[ian turner]

Any other similar casualties around the same time - might get a clue as to whether it was a unique illness or a wider outbreak at the barracks.

Ian

[kin47]

Hello

Although I don't have specifics, eleven ratings died in July and August 1915 in VIVID. Some 103 died in VIVID from illness in 1914 to 1915 alone.

All best

don

[reilly]

Thanks for the posts.

I have tried to go down the route of finding similar casualties for this period, but its a bit of a needle in a haystack unfortuately.

Don - Patrick died on the 03/08/15 - so he would have been one of the eleven. Can I ask how you know 11 VIVID ratings died in this period?

The ability of forum member to access facts such as above, always amazes me!! I researched my GG father service in the Irish Guards a few months ago and the knowledge base of the Forum is incredible!

Thanks

Brian

[kin47]

Hello Brian

Here is the list of VIVID men who died in the summer of 1915.

FLETCHER SAMUEL A. A.B. 99741 (Dev) 12/06/15 ILLNESS

GREEN JOHN W. TRIMMER, RNR 1184 T S 22/06/15 ILLNESS

EVANS FREDERICK G. SEAMAN, RNR 2127 D 23/06/15 ILLNESS

MATTHEWS SAMUEL G. STOKER 1c 299449 23/06/15 ILLNESS EMANUEL MATTHEWS

REEVES JOSEPH C.P.O. 203615 27/06/15 ILLNESS

DRAKE JOHN L/STOKER K 3496 04/07/15 CYCLE ACCIDENT

STUART EDWIN J.W. P.O. 2c 115385 05/07/15 ILLNESS

MARTIN ALFRED R. CHIEF WRITER 133444 09/07/15 ILLNESS

PENGELLY CHARLES S. S.B.A M 10965 15/07/15 ILLNESS

VEALE MICHAEL STOKER P.O. 295061 15/07/15 ILLNESS

GLAVIN PATRICK STOKER 2c K 26347 03/08/15 ILLNESS

HYSSETT ERNEST L/SEAMAN 178377 16/08/15 ILLNESS

LEITH WILLIAM TRIMMER, RNR T S 2336 18/08/15 ILLNESS

WILLIS RICHARD J. STOKER 1c K 21526 18/08/15 ILLNESS

BALL WILLIAM H. P.O. STOKER 276572 (Dev) 23/08/15 ILLNESS

POMEROY ALBERT L/SEAMAN 195300 02/09/15 ILLNESS

COUCH WILLIAM H. BOY 1c J 30981 07/09/15 ILLNESS

MURPHY JOHN STOKER, RNR 1637 T 09/09/15 ILLNESS late NOTTINGHAM

THOMAS HAROLD L. BOY 1c J 33530 (Ply) 15/09/15 ILLNESS

WEBB JOHN BOY 2c J 35465 18/09/15 ILLNESS

TOLLEY WILLIAM 2nd COOK'S MATE M 10304 20/09/15 ILLNESS

[reilly]

Thanks for the information Don.