Patrolman John Joseph Clifford

Also kept at

Died on December 9, 1918, aged 38.

His life

Patrolman John Clifford died as a result of complications from influenza while performing his assigned duties during the Influenza Pandemic.

The Watertown Police Department had been tasked with enforcing local health laws to help prevent the spread of influenza, as well as performing their regular police duties.

Patrolman Clifford served with the Watertown Police Department for 10 years.

Survived by

He was survived by seven siblings.

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 →

Nothing is held of him yet.

No monument carrying this name is recorded yet.

Everything John Joseph Clifford 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 John Joseph Clifford yet.

Everyone taken by The 1918 Influenza Pandemic →