Tragedy strikes war hero days before he was due to be wed

An indication of the impact of the global flu pandemic on Stirling was given in the Observer of 1919.

The paper said latest figures showed between October 1, 1918, and April 30, 1919, total deaths due to flu, pneumonia and bronchitis numbered 155.

Thirty-four were from influenza alone, influenza and pneumonia accounted for 53 with 39 dying from pneumonia and 39 from bronchitis .

Deaths from all causes during that period numbered 317, indicating 49 per cent died from flu, pneumonia and bronchitis.

It is now thought Spanish Flu, as it became known, affected 500 million people worldwide.

The History Press website states between the first recorded case in March 1918, and the last in March 1920, between 50 and 100 million people died,three to five percent of the global population.

It is thought the virus killed more than the combined death toll of the 20th Century’s two world wars. Historians now question whether it originated in Spain.

***

Dunblane marked the signing of treaty a day earlier as the town’s cattle show was held on July 19. Celebrations were, said the Observer, of a ‘happy and appropriate character’ and the town was suitably – though not elaborately – decorated and shops closed in the afternoon as children’s entertainment got underway. Children from the parish, numbering about 900, assembled at the Cross and marched to Kippenross Park for sports. Following the programme, the youngsters were presented with a commemorative medal. Provost and Mrs Stewart, Aultwharrie, paid for the event and sent parcels of tea to the old and poor of the burgh. During the evening there was a fancy dress parade featuring more than 70 cyclists.

In the parish of Logie, the peace celebrations were carried through ‘with much spirit and enthusiasm’. Around

A soldier who survived World War One and was about to get married died in a pit tragedy , the Observer of July 1919, reported.

Francis O’brien, pit brusher, Glasgow Road, St Ninians, was working in the Wallsend seam at No2 pit, Polmaise Colliery, Millhall.

He was using a naked flame which ignited gas and caused an explosion , leaving him seriously burnt about the face, head, arms and body. He was taken to Stirling Royal Infirmary but died from his injuries.

It was a tragic end to the life of a man who, when war broke out in 1914, immediately returned from the United States, where he had been working, and enlisted in the Artillery.

Mr O’brien saw much service at the Front during four years and two months of Army service.

The Observer said: “Following the end of the war he returned home to St Ninians on a month’s holiday, pending demobilisation and discharge, and rather than go about idle till then took a job at Millhall.

“Another sad feature about his death is ... that he was to have been married in a week or two.

‘‘A most respectable young man of a quiet and obliging disposition, he was liked by everybody who knew and his untimely end has evoked much sympathy for his parents, who are well known in St Ninians.”