In the midst of the present pandemic, we thought it would be interesting to look back at how infectious diseases affected lives in the past, and we are grateful to Ian Quigley for the following:

It feels a bit surreal to have all of our schools closed at the moment to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These are certainly unprecedented times. But perhaps not quite as unprecedented as you may think with regards to school closures to curb the spread of infectious diseases.

Back in the late 19th and early 20th Century it was not that uncommon for schools to be closed for weeks on end to prevent the spread of diseases such as whooping cough, measles and typhoid fever. During these epidemics even if schools remained open it was common for parents to refuse to send their children to prevent them mixing with those who were infected.

Extracts from the school log books in the publication ‘Sgoil a Bhac: Memories Through the Ages’ give us some insight into the impact of infectious diseases on school attendance at Back.

The school was closed for two weeks in July 1880 due to an outbreak of whooping cough.

An outbreak of measles is recorded on 25th November 1887 and on this occasion the school was closed. It is not clear for how long the school was closed but the 1887 outbreak seems to have taken significant hold in the area and many young children lost their lives as a result. In Vatisker alone, 9 children passed away from the disease between November and December 1887.

In February 1897 it was recorded that pupils from homes where typhoid fever had broken out were off the roll. Searching through records of Vatisker I was able to find one death from this disease. A seven years old Vatisker boy in December 1886. From the description in the school log it does seem the disease was widespread and I have no doubt many other families would be impacted both in Vatisker and in the wider district. It seems the school was still open though.

This was not the case in Tolsta a few years later when Typhus Fever closed the school there between 3rd July 1902 and 24th December 1902. Questions were raised in Parliament during November and December 1902 by the MP for Ross and Cromarty, Mr James Galloway Weir. He asked what measures were being taken to control the disease and the response from the Lord Advocate was ‘Every precaution in the way of segregation, cleanliness and free use of disinfectants has been employed. The typhus cases only numbered six of which four are now convalescent’. In fact, Mr Weir believed there to have been upwards of fifty cases and the numbers given by the Lord Advocate only covered a short period of time. Fast forward almost 118 years and once again we are using similar measures to control the latest infectious disease to hit our shores. It is also interesting to note the apparent lack of understanding and transparency back then with regards to the numbers of people impacted.

Mr Weir was certainly persistent in his search for answers and he seemed determined to highlight the issues being faced in Lewis. On 17th December he was enquiring about the number of public schools in the Isle of Lewis that were closed during 1902 on account of infectious diseases. The response gives an insight into how big an issue this was in 1902: Aird School 7th March to 14th July; Tolsta 3rd July and still closed; Knock (Junior Section) 25th August to 15th September; Bayble (Junior Section) 23rd August to 8th September; Lionel 9th April to 2nd June; Cross 1st January to 18th February; Shawbost 1st January to 24th March; Airidh-an-tuim 1st January to 19th January; Carloway 1st January to 6th January.

In March 1903 Mr Weir once again raised a question in Parliament around school closures and at that time things seem to have much improved in Lewis where Tong school was the only one closed.

It does seem Back School may have escaped closure due to the Typhus Fever epidemic mentioned above. Certainly, over that period there were no deaths recorded from this cause in the village of Vatisker.

We do know from the ‘Sgoil a Bhac’ book that Back School was closed for 11 weeks between November 1903 and February 1904 as a result of another measles outbreak.

One other instance of closure as a result of infectious disease was when the Infant Department was closed on 4th January 1911 due to an outbreak of whooping cough.

It is strange to us that so many years ago people were in fear of diseases such as measles and whooping cough in much the same way we are fearful of COVID-19 today. With those diseases now so effectively controlled by vaccination and medication we live in hope that we soon have a vaccination and cure for COVID-19.