In memory of

Jeremiah Joseph McDonald

Patrolman · Fall River Police Department

Died on September 27, 1918, aged 40.

United States of America

His life

Patrolman Jeremiah McDonald died as a result of complications of Spanish Influenza contracted while assigned to enforcing health laws in the city of Fall River.

After completing his shift, Patrolman McDonald arrived home complaining of not feeling well. He was confined to his home as his health deteriorated, and he died from the flu a week later.

The city of Fall River's first reported case of Influenza was on September 16th, 1918. By the end of the year over 11,707 cases were reported, with 719 deaths. Many members of the Fall River Police Department became ill while enforcing the city health laws. Patrolman McDonald and two other members of the Police Department died as a result of contracting Spanish Influenza.

Patrolman McDonald had served with the Fall River Police Department for 15 years.

Survived by

He was survived by his wife and four children.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic

January 1, 1918

The influenza of 1918 came in waves, the worst of them in the autumn of that year, and it killed the young and strong as readily as the old. Before it was over it had killed more people than the First World War.

Police officers worked it without vaccines, without antibiotics and often without masks: enforcing quarantines, carrying the sick, standing posts in cities where the dead outpaced the undertakers. They caught it doing the job, and there was no treatment to give them.

They are the first named here.

Everyone taken by The 1918 Influenza Pandemic →

Media

Jeremiah Joseph McDonald
Jeremiah Joseph McDonald 0 Views JPG 16 KB

No monument carrying this name is recorded yet.

Everything Jeremiah Joseph McDonald is tied to in the record. Scroll to zoom, drag to move, click a face or a label to open it.

No family is recorded with him yet.

What people have said

Nobody else has said anything for Jeremiah Joseph McDonald yet.

↑