Guerre 14/18

Eton College and the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Autograph Letter Signed from Eton schoolboy 'Dickie Harington' to his mother describing the effects of the epidemic on the college.

19198 — Eton College Windsor. 11 July 1918. 5pp. 12mo. In good condition on lightly-aged paper. He states that he has 'not got the Flue sic though it is raging in the house & all over Eton boys are recovering from it & others are getting it I am wondering whether you had better come down to Eton as over 200 boys have got it & although I have not got it as I am living in a house where it is I probably carry it about & I do not want to give it to you.' He discusses hotels in the vicinity and her trip to Dartmouth before remarking: 'I am feeling very fit & think the quinine & Formalin are keeping off the Flue. I am afraid the Flue will not stop camp as it will have probably finished by the time camp comes.' He turns to the recent bad weather: 'The other day I had a nasty surprise it was raining very hard & slight thunder about & I went under a bridge in the railway arches & the lightning came down just outside the bridge about 15 feet away from me another boy & a soldier were there & it gave us a pretty good start the soldier said that it was just like a shell bursting at the front.' There is a reference to a Corps inspection by the Duke of Connaught before he ends with best wishes to her and members of the family. The item comes from the Harington family papers but the author is too young to be the future Sir Richard Dundas Harington 13th Baronet who would have been eighteen years old at the time of the letter. Eton College, Windsor. 11 July 1918. unknown