Part 5: Manitobans who died fighting "Spanish" Influenza

 © 2020, Christian Cassidy

This series tells the stories of some of the Manitobans who died fighting the "Spanish" Influenza pandemic of 1918 -1919. For the complete list and an introduction to the series, see part one.

Anna Gibson (1896 - 1918)

Anna Gibson was a teacher at LaVerandrye School. When schools were closed she had time on her hands and volunteered to nurse the sick. (The city also put out a call to idle teachers to come help with the fight against the flu.)

Gibson was among the first wave of volunteer nurses and was assigned to the Logan Avenue annex of the King George hospital. She fell ill in late November and died a week later on November 23, 1918.

Anna Gibson School, 1920 - 2005. (Source)

The death of Gibson shocked the education community. Flags at schools were flown at half mast until her funeral on November 26th. Many teachers and students from her school attended the ceremony. She was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Construction began on a new elementary school months after her death on what is now Henderson Highway in Elmwood. School board officials decided that it would be named in her honour.

Anna Gibson School existed from 1920 to 1937. During World War II it became part of Mennonite Bretheren Bible College and was renamed. It has since been demolished.

Image sources:
Portrait from: Winnipeg Tribune
School photo: The Year Past, 2005

Harriet Constance Hurlburt (1886 - 1918)

The Hurlburt family was originally from Mitchell, Ontario. Hattie, one of six children, lived with her parents at 737 McMillan Avenue when she left to attend nursing school at the YWCA hospital in Jamestown, New York. After graduating in 1916, she returned to Winnipeg and soon began working at the King George Hospital. She lived in the nurses residence there.

In August 1918, she and her parents had the chance to spent a few days at their cottage at Lake of the Woods.

Hurlburt requested a transfer to the front lines when her hospital's Logan Avenue annex opened. After a few weeks, she contracted influenza and was transferred back to the King George as a patient. She died from pneumonia after a week's illness on November 22nd.

Hurlburt's funeral took place the following afternoon. Eight nurses from the hospital were her pallbearers. She was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Image sources:
Headline from Nov. 22, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune
Card of Thanks from Nov. 29, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press

Mary Depoe (1893 - 1918)

Mary Depoe worked at the T. Eaton store. Though she would have been sent home when stores were forced to close, a newspaper reference states that she signe up with the V.A.D. around December 10th, after stores were permitted to reopen. This suggests she may have taken a leave to work as a volunteer nurse.

After her training, Depoe was sent to care for a sick family on Victor Street when she contracted the disease.

Depoe died at St. Boniface Hospital on December 22nd which was apparently just one day after her 25th birthday. She was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Image source: Dec. 23, 1918, Winnipeg Tribune

Florence Smith (1896- 1918)

In the Winnipeg Tribune's coverage of the 1918 - 19 annual general meeting of the Winnipeg General Hospital, it mentions that "Dr. Fred Orek, one of the intern staff, and a pupil nurse, Miss Florence Smith, were victims of the disease (influenza)."

Smith's name is not mentioned in either of Winnipeg's daily newspapers, but a Manitoba Vital Statistics database search shows a Florence McIsaac Smith, 22, died on November 24, 1918. "Flossie's" grave is in Saint Stephen's Anglican Church Cemetery at Stanley, Hants County, Nova Scotia.

Image source: Erin Winchcombe on Find a Grave