The Lockdown Chronicles 11: Gertrude

 

With huge respect and gratitude for all the medical staff worldwide.

Gertrude Mary Giltinan (1881-1919) joined the Other Empire Force as a Voluntary Aid Detachment on the Joint War Committee and worked at the 2nd General Hospital in Manchester. A month after Gertrude signed up as a VAD, the influenza pandemic had reached an acute stage in Manchester. Gertrude died on the 19th November 1919 aged 38, from Spanish flu and subsequent pneumonia, which she contracted while nursing her patients. [Alice Low, Florence Nightingale Museum leaflet].

Text adapted from:  Low, Alice (2018) “Gertrude Giltinan (1881-1919)”, Nursing during WWI and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, volunteer research leaflet, ©Florence Nightingale Museum; Blakey, Ashley, (20 April 2020), “Another 64 people lose their lives to Coronavirus in Greater Manchester”, Manchester Evening News; the Guardian Picture Essay (20 April 2020) “On the frontline: meet the NHS workers tackling coronavirus”; Marsh, Sarah (22 April 2020) “Doctors, nurses, porters, volunteers: the UK health workers who have died from Covid-19”, the Guardian.

Source images: Panel 1: Nicholls Hospital, Manchester, England. Transfer lithograph, 1879, after T. Worthington. Wellcome Images, Wellcome Collection. CC-BY 4.0; Panels 2-4: Photograph of Gertrude Giltinan, Voluntary Aid Detachments. Died of influenza contracted on duty 19 November 1919, WWC H2-169, Imperial War Museum, ©IWM, IWM Non-Commercial Licence. This comic strip CC-BY-NC-SA.

References

Florence Nightingale Museum, London (September 2018 to January 2020), “Spanish Flu: Nursing during history’s deadliest pandemic”. Available at https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/spanish-flu-nursing-during-historys-deadliest-pandemic/ [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Low, Alice (2018) “Gertrude Giltinan (1881-1919)”, Nursing during WWI and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, volunteer research leaflet, Florence Nightingale Museum. Available as PDF at https://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/hlf-volunteer-research-leaflet.pdf [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Blakey, Ashley (20 April 2020), “Another 64 people lose their lives to Coronavirus in Greater Manchester”, Manchester Evening News. Available at https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/coronavirus-death-toll-greater-manchester-18119590 [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Elgot, Jessica (25 September 2015) “Police apologise for using sirens to settle ‘woo-woo’ or ‘nee-nah’ debate”. The Guardian. Available at
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/25/police-apologise-for-using-sirens-to-settle-woo-woo-or-nee-nah-debate [Accessed 22 April 2020]

The Guardian Picture Essay (20 April 2020) “On the frontline: meet the NHS workers tackling coronavirus”. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/nhs-frontline-meet-people-risking-lives-tackle-coronavirus  [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Marsh, Sarah (22 April 2020) “Doctors, nurses, porters, volunteers: the UK health workers who have died from Covid-19”, the Guardian. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/16/doctors-nurses-porters-volunteers-the-uk-health-workers-who-have-died-from-covid-19   [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Nicholls Hospital, Manchester, England. Transfer lithograph, 1879, after T. Worthington. Wellcome Images, Wellcome Collection. Available at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/n8urd46p/items?canvas=1&langCode=eng   [Accessed 22 April 2020]

Photograph of Gertrude Giltinan, Voluntary Aid Detachments. Died of influenza contracted on duty 19 November 1919, WWC H2-169, Imperial War Museum. Available at  https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205380418 [Accessed 22 April 2020]

 

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The Lockdown Chronicles is a series of periodical comic strips made at night (in candlelight!) adapting and reusing openly-licensed or public domain items from online digital collections. Publication and tweetage are scheduled in advance. Historical sources are adapted and updated for the current pandemic; please refer to each strip’s references on each post for further context.  Catch up with the series at https://epriego.blog/tag/the-lockdown-chronicles/.