Legal history blog posts from LASA Archivist, Brenda McCafferty…
(on lockdown, working from home)
Archival records at LASA related to the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic:
It may come as no surprise, that a startling number of members of the legal profession in Alberta, came down with the 1918 ‘Spanish Flu’, and three are known to have died in 1919, during the second ‘wave’ of infection.
The initial outbreak was thought to have originated on American army bases in Kansas or Texas during the final year of the Great War. First public mention of the virus, was made in an article written by Spanish media. Spain, who remained neutral during WWI, had a free press and was first to report on the outbreak. Henceforth, the epidemic was referred to as the ‘Spanish Flu’. Lasting from January 1918 to December 1920, the scale of the pandemic was estimated to be 17 million to 100 million deaths worldwide.
The patchy details provided from LASA’s online catalogue, highlight the grim realities of three lawyers short association with the legal profession in Alberta, and students, whose education was cut short as a result of the pandemic. It will be interesting to monitor and make comparisons between the two diseases in the coming years.
Three members admitted to the Law Society of Alberta (LSA), between 1909 and 1919, were victims of the virus and the education of several students-at-law were affected. Below, are descriptions taken from LASA’s database, of valuable archival records we preserve in our storage vault:
Joseph Edward Caldwell
Law Society of Alberta (LSA) admission procedures based on membership in the Saskatchewan Bar; out of province member; obituary notice – died in flu epidemic.
George Stirling Matthews
Articles of clerkship, Harold H. Parlee, Edmonton; LL.B.; University of Alberta; admission procedures; death, flu epidemic; disposal of library.
Roderick Francis Murphy
Articles of clerkship, Hector L. Landry, Edmonton, William H. Odell and Robert W. Manley, Wetaskiwin; B.A., St. Francis Xavier University; admission procedures; death, flu epidemic.
Records of students-at-law affected by the pandemic:
The memoirs of The Honourable Gorden Allen, QC
Gordon Hollis Allen was born in Chesterton, New York on May 28, 1901 and came to Canada with his parents in 1912. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Alberta Appellate Division, and served 1966-1978. Allen was president of the Law Society of Alberta from 1959 to 1961.
The late Gordon Allen, QC, Justice of the Supreme Court of Alberta, 1966-1978, relates his experience as a student-at-law in his memoir donated to LASA:
In the Late Fall of 1918, studies at high school were interrupted by the epidemic of a most virulent and often fatal type of pneumonia, what was then term “Spanish Influenza” or “The Flu”.
Admission procedures; articles of clerkship, Hector Hugh Gilchrist, James Edward Varley, Calgary; LL.B., University of Alberta; articles of clerkship, George Crichton Stuart Crosby, Red Deer; LL.B. course at University of Alberta and bar admission requirements; effects of war and influenza epidemic; newspaper clipping re. MacLaren’s admission; transfer to San Francisco, California; return to Alberta; non-practicing list; letter of inquiry, W.E. Payne, National Conference of Bar Examiners.
Law student 
admissions to the Bar, overseen by the Law Society of Alberta (LSA), were drastically mediated as evidenced in correspondence from Cecil E. Rice, Registrar of the University of Alberta, in reference to William Aberhart’s ‘exceptional’ student, Reginald MacLaren:
“With the autumn of 1918 and the spring of 1919, some unusual circumstances gave rise to some exceptional courses. The two exceptional circumstances were the close of the war and the influenza epidemic of the autumn of 1918.”
Undoubtedly, spread of the virus occurred at the close of WW1, with increased social density of soldiers in the trenches, inside hospitals, and when returning to their home towns, in tight quarters aboard ships and trains.
