Cecil James Schwass

Cecil James Schwass
WWI 17227
Gunner; occupation before enlistment: Joiner
Next of kin Mrs C.J. Schwass (wife), Motueka, Nelson, New Zealand
New Zealand Expeditionary Force
16th Reinforcements New Zealand Field Artillery
Embarkation: 20 August 1916, Wellington, New Zealand
Transport: HMNZT 61
Vessel: Aparima or Navua or Mokoia
Destination: Devonport, England
Last unit served: New Zealand Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade
Place of death: France
Date of death: 24 November 1918
Cause of death: Influenza

Biographical notes: Cecil Schwass was the husband of Mrs. M. M. R. Schwass (now Symons), of 23 Hay St., Oriental Bay, New Zealand.

https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/...

The Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918
In 1918-19 the so-called Spanish influenza pandemic killed about 20 to 40 millions people all over the world. In France the loss of life was reckoned between 125,000 and 250,000 civilians and 30,000 soldiers though the epidemiological data have been incomplete. The virus allegedly came from the United States of America with the American forces which landed in the western harbours of France and probably with Indochina's troops or Chinese workers hired in the French factories. The disease spread in three waves from April 1918 to February 1919. The second wave was the most severe in September, October and November. Half of the dead occurred among the 20-40 old people as the older people were more disease-resistant. Lethal forms were due to respiratory complications which often killed in a few days. The government did to preventive measures that were unequally applied as the treatment could be only symptomatic. The reactions of people were astonishingly cautions probably because the papers were ordered not to deal with the epidemic as long as the war lasted for. Some new serological studies and molecular biology techniques led up to clarify the strain of the 1918 influenza virus without further understanding of its special virulence.