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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

35th Division


roger

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During the summer 1915 the various units of the 35th div. concentrated at Masham, North Yorks. close to where I live.

In the churchyard of St Mary's there are the graves of six soldiers of the Div, 18/HLI, Cheshires, 15/Sherwood Foresters, 19/North.Fus. and 19/DLI. All died June, July and August 1915.

Unfortunetly I don't have any clues how these men met their deaths.

I realise there was a lot of men in a Division but was it usual to lose this many men in such a short space of time in Britain?

Roger.

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Roger.

Only a suggestion and i am not sure on this but could it have been something like an influenza epidemic etc

Chris

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Hi,

Mumps perhaps?

I have heard that some of the lads from the West Indies that are here in Seaford died of mumps.

onle a suggestion.

Mandy

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It crossed my mind that they were subject to some sort of epidemic.

I haven't got the Div. history yet, thats next months book purchase but I wonder if the deaths are mentioned there or in any of the battalion histories.

Roger.

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There were also epidemics of Measles during the war.

Dave

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There were periodic outbreaks of bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and the likes in the crowded conditions of barracks and camps.

Robert

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Thanks for the replies. It's quite strange seeing a row of military graves dated 1915 in the Yorkshire Dales.

Roger.

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There were periodic outbreaks of bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and the likes in the crowded conditions of barracks and camps.

Robert

Also, could have been killed during training accidents.

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According to Becke, it looks like the Division was in and around Masham for 6 weeks. For that number of men 6 deaths to me doesn't seem unusual. I was reading a war diary recently where it said Pte Bloggs dropped dead. There were on the Western Front but in reserve! I've researched others whose death was attributable to an adverse reaction to innoculation. A combination of disease, training accidents and natural causes would probably produce one death a week among so many men.

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