The Influenza Pandemic 1919-1920

and the creation of Wilkinson The Influenza Pandemic 1919-1920

House!

By Ian Robertson, Alumni Manager

Wanda McCallum (Wilkinson, Class of 1911).

The current COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenging time, to say the least. However, it should also give us cause for reflection on a similarly devastating pandemic of a century ago: the misnamed Spanish flu, which emerged in Europe in April 1918 and was spread around the world by soldiers returning from World War One.

Senior Class 1908, Wanda Wilkinson is third from the right in the middle row.

The pandemic affected all sections of society, and Australia’s governments were quick to react. Some state borders were closed and regulations that we now call lockdown were introduced. Cotton masks were worn in a bid to halt the spread. In looking at the school history, And, As We Journey and the Palm Leaf, Christmas edition 1919, it is interesting to see the effect on Korowa and its community and the similarities to the new normal of 2020. The government closed all public places and banned large gatherings, with the result that the summer holiday of 1919 was extended until March 1920 (no online learning!). A second wave later in the year forced school closures yet again. It is estimated that 15,000 Australians died. Unlike COVID-19, the pandemic of 1919 was particularly deadly to the young. While no current Korowa student died, some lost family members, and the School community was shocked to hear of the death of a former student, Wanda McCallum (Wilkinson, Class of 1911) on 8 June 1919. Wanda enrolled at Korowa as a five-year-old in 1900, making her the youngest student in the School, and was Head Prefect and Dux in her final year in 1911. She returned in 1912 as a teacher and remained on staff until her marriage in 1914. She was a much-loved teacher and her untimely death sent shockwaves through the small School community. As the Palm Leaf of Christmas 1919 stated, her death “left a deep sense of loss among us. Those who knew her will always be proud to remember her as a scholar and as a teacher... Mrs McCallum always found time and thought to spare for her old School.” Wanda’s brother Lisle married a Korowa teacher, Miss Edith Maxwell, and their daughters (and Wanda’s nieces) Lisla Wilkinson (Class of 1936, Dux of the School and House Captain of Wilkinson) and Aline Wilkinson (Class of 1940) attended Korowa. Such was the esteem in which the Korowa community held Wanda, that in 1924 the newly created Wilkinson House was named in her honour. It is appropriate that we remember Wanda’s contribution to the early years of Korowa just over one hundred years after her death.