Part 2: Manitobans who died fighting "Spanish" Influenza

© 2020, Christian Cassidy

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

Nursing Sister Miriam Eastman Baker (1886 - 1918)

One of the first Winnipeg nurses to die from influenza was in a military setting.

Nursing Sister Miriam Baker was born and raised in Winnipeg and studied nursing at St. Luke's Hospital, New York. She enlisted with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in October 1917 and was sent overseas.

Baker was serving at the 15th Canadian General Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England when she contracted influnza from the men she was treating. She died of bronchial pneumonia on October 17, 1918 at the age of 32 and was buried in Cliveden War Cemetery in Buckinghamshire.

For a longer biography of Baker see my West End Dumplings post.

Image sources:
Portrait from Canadian Virtual War Memorial entry
Hospital ward photo from Canadian War Museum website

Marion Munro Ross (1887 - 1918)

Marion Ross, 31, had been a nurse-in-training at the Brandon General Hospital for more than two years and worked on the city's isolation ward. She died on October 27th after a brief illness and became the fifth person in the Wheat City to succumb to influenza.

A sister from her home town of Inneskip, Ontario and a cousin from Saskatchewan came to Brandon to make funeral arrangements. Her grave is not listed at the main Brandon cemeteries, so it is likely her body was sent back to Ontario for burial.

Image source: Nov. 27, 1918, Brandon Sun

Jessie B. Lawlor (1894 - 1918)

Jessie B. Lawlor was one of seven children of Sarah and Thomas Lawlor, a pioneer merchant family from Killarney, Manitoba. She moved to Winnipeg in 1914 to study nursing at the Winnipeg General Hospital. Her classed began on the day World War I was declared.

According to one account, "her spirits and attentiveness soon won her popularity amongst both her fellow nurses and her patients".

Lawlor wanted to volunteer for the war after graduation but due to "domestic circumstances" returned to Killarney to nurse. In September 1918, she took a job at the Lashburn Cottage Hospital in Lashburn, Saskatchewan, nearly 1,000 kilometres away.

The 12-bed hospital opened in 1909 according the Lashburn centennial history book. By the time Lawlor was hired it was considered very well equipped for a rural hospital with an operating room and a 6-bed isolation building added in 1916.

Working alongside Dr. J. E. Moran and a small staff, the hospital was soon overwhelmed by the influenza pandemic and "... her (Lawlor's) responsibilities were greatly increased, resulting in her being at the bedsides of her patients almost incessantly."

Lawlor contracted influenza on November 6, 1918 and died two days later. She was 24 years old. Her body could not be returned to Killarney and was buried in Lashburn Cemetery.

Image sources:
Portrait from Geni.com - Jessie Brown Lawlor
Headline from Nov. 18, 1918, Winnipeg Free Press
Hospital images from Lashburn and District History