Whitsell, William Benton, seaman, second class, United States Naval Reserve Force.
Enrolled: Kansas City, Mo., July 10, 1918.
Died: Naval hospital, Great Lakes, Ill., September 24, 1918.
Cause: Influenza.
Next of kin: Father, William Albert Whitsell, Clarksdale, Mo.
Of the Navy personnel listed on p. 776 of Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Navy Who Lost Their Lives during the World War, from April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918, from Whitmyer to Whitty, eight died of pneumonia, influenza or meningitis. The ninth man on the page, Apprentice Seaman Whitty, died of an intracraneal injury. Seaman Whitsell (above) was the son of a man who served in the Missouri Legislature, which is how I came upon this page of this book.
What sort of toll did influenza take on the armed forces during the Great War? A January 1919 article in the New York Times reports that it was the chief cause of deaths in home camps.
Before the influenza pandemic ran its course, over 600,000 Americans from all walks of life were dead, nearly one-third of them in one month, October 1918.
I had a little bird;
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And influenza.
Enrolled: Kansas City, Mo., July 10, 1918.
Died: Naval hospital, Great Lakes, Ill., September 24, 1918.
Cause: Influenza.
Next of kin: Father, William Albert Whitsell, Clarksdale, Mo.
Of the Navy personnel listed on p. 776 of Officers and Enlisted Men of the United States Navy Who Lost Their Lives during the World War, from April 6, 1917, to November 11, 1918, from Whitmyer to Whitty, eight died of pneumonia, influenza or meningitis. The ninth man on the page, Apprentice Seaman Whitty, died of an intracraneal injury. Seaman Whitsell (above) was the son of a man who served in the Missouri Legislature, which is how I came upon this page of this book.
What sort of toll did influenza take on the armed forces during the Great War? A January 1919 article in the New York Times reports that it was the chief cause of deaths in home camps.
Before the influenza pandemic ran its course, over 600,000 Americans from all walks of life were dead, nearly one-third of them in one month, October 1918.
I had a little bird;
Its name was Enza.
I opened the window,
And influenza.