1897–1898 disease outbreak in Maidstone, England
The Maidstone typhoid epidemic (11 September 1897 - 29 January 1898), was the largest typhoid epidemic the UK had experienced.
Context.
Typhoid is an acute life-threatening bacterial illness, caused by eating contaminated food or water, or by cross contamination with infected faeces and urine. The risk of catching typhoid in nineteenth-century Britain and dying from it was a very real threat. The population of Maidstone was about 34,000 at the time, and at least 1,908 people caught typhoid.
Outbreak.
At least 132 people are known to have died, the majority dying outside the hospitals- either at home or in make shift temporary hospitals. The medical officer stopped keeping a record of the deaths after early October 1897 so more people may have died. The epidemic was a ‘...turning point in public health...’; during the epidemic trials of water sterilisation using chlorination and the first immunisations with typhoid vaccine were carried out in Maidstone.
The Board of Inquiry which was set up to establish the cause of the epidemic, found that it was due to contaminated water from the Farleigh Springs, one of three springs which supplied Maidstone. This had been contaminated by faeces, deposited by typhoid-carrying hop-pickers camping nearby. It was exacerbated by an increased level of rainfall before the epidemic, which created a high level of subsoil water which in turn contaminated the water supply. The enquiry closed on 19 February 1898.
Maidstone Borough Council was overwhelmed by people with typhoid requiring nursing care and had insufficient nurses to care for the typhoid epidemic victims. The Corporation of London supplied 100 nurses, including Edith Cavell, a probationer from The London Hospital to help in the epidemic. Nurses volunteered from around the United Kingdom, and Eva Luckes, Matron of The London Hospital sent nine probationers including Edith Cavell to work in the epidemic, as well as others from the hospital's Private Nursing Institute. Prominent nurse reformer, Ethel Gordon Fenwick visited the hospitals and wrote about her visits.
The nurses and others who served in the epidemic were either given, or able to purchase a Maidstone typhoid epidemic Medal.
Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert had died from typhoid in 1861, which may explain her donation of £50 to the M.T.E. relief fund, the equivalent of £5,459.42 as of September 2024.
Borough of Maidstone Typhoid Emergency Hospitals, 1897-1898.
Hospitals were opened in a number of sites. Eleven local buildings were used to accommodate up to 339 people:
                                  
Fig 2: Table Produced for the Local Government Board of Inquiry in to the Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic.
Staff who worked in the epidemic.
As well as over 270 nurses members of the Army also worked, as well as volunteer cooks, laundry workers and many others.