BARLOW, Harry
Born 1886; died 20 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918; age 32
Harry BARLOW was born in in 1886 in Fulham, London, when his mother Kate was 42 and his father Arthur, a bricklayer, was 38. The couple had a second child two years later, a girl named Catherine but called Kate like her mother. According to the 1891 Census all four members of the family were living at 32 Limerston Street, Chelsea and his mother continued living there for at least the next 20 years. These days Chelsea is renowned as an affluent “suburb” in West London, home to the King’s Road, Chelsea Football Club, Sloane Street, and Chelsea Royal Hospital for old soldiers, the grounds of which are used for the Chelsea Flower Show each year.
When the Census was taken again in 1901 Harry had left home, and no records about his life or movements have been found. He obviously made his way to New Zealand at some unknown date, because he was working as a waterside worker in Wellington when the flu epidemic struck.
On 14 November 1918, the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union held a stop-work meeting to consider recommendations from their National Disputes Committee that all vessels affected by influenza should be thoroughly disinfected, that crews should come ashore while cargo was being worked, and that all watersiders should pass through an inhalation chamber and the start and finish of each day. The Evening Post that day reported the view of the meeting that this action would be insufficient and, by a narrow margin, the final decision was to cease all work for seven days.
This attempt at containment was too late for Harry Barlow. He had been living at 121 Ghuznee Street for three months, but on Tuesday 12 November he complained to his landlord, one John Morgan, that he was ‘feeling poorly’. John said later that Harry stayed in bed for ‘two or three days and was nursed by Mrs Morgan.” By the Saturday, he appeared to have recovered and got up but two days later he had a bad attack of diarrhoea. At some stage during that afternoon Harry asked to borrow a pencil. In the early evening, John decided that, with no sign of improvement, he would fetch a local doctor. At about 7.30pm on the same evening John was in the room next to the one Harry occupied when he said he heard ‘a report of a revolver and a sound like a heavy thud’. John went into Harry’s room and ‘found him lying across the bed, unconscious. There was a revolver at this right side. There was a wound behind his right ear.’ The doctor arrived at about 8.30pm and a police constable was then summoned and arrangements made to transport Harry to hospital.
Before being moved, Harry regained consciousness and was reported to have said: ’I got very weak from influenza and I didn’t think it worthwhile. I got the revolver and shot myself.’ He went on to say that he had not made a will and asked that the Public Trustee should forward his money and personal belongings to his mother in England. A note was found on the dressing table in Harry’s room, the reason for his asking to borrow the pencil. The note said: ‘I am suffering terrible agony. I can hardly stand up. Do not write and tell my mother the way I met my death. I ought to have gone to a hospital. I believe the medicine was the wrong sort. The doctor could do nothing for me.’
The Superintendent of the Public Hospital informed the Coroner that Harry was practically unconscious when he was admitted, with a temperature of 105.6 degrees and signs of pneumonia. It was reported that he did not recover consciousness and died on 20 November. The Coroner returned a verdict that, in line with the medical evidence, ‘the cause of death was influenzal capillary bronchitis: although the victim had shot himself while depressed, the resulting wound was not the cause of death’. (Coroner’s inquest case file held by Archives New Zealand, Wellington)
Although Harry was reported to say that he had not prepared a will, he was helped to do so at the hospital. Written on a sheet taken from a hospital patient record book and dated 19 November 1918, it was in the handwriting on one of the witnesses, a Presbyterian Minister. Harry left his savings and cash, which he spelled out in detail, to his mother living in Chelsea, London. Too weak to write himself, he signed the will with the mark of a cross. Harry was not married, and his mother was his sole beneficiary. The Public Trustee later reported that the sum involved amounted to £259 (nearly $27,000 in 2016 values).
Researched and written by Max Kerr
Born 1886; died 20 November 1918; buried 22 November 1918; age 32
Harry BARLOW was born in in 1886 in Fulham, London, when his mother Kate was 42 and his father Arthur, a bricklayer, was 38. The couple had a second child two years later, a girl named Catherine but called Kate like her mother. According to the 1891 Census all four members of the family were living at 32 Limerston Street, Chelsea and his mother continued living there for at least the next 20 years. These days Chelsea is renowned as an affluent “suburb” in West London, home to the King’s Road, Chelsea Football Club, Sloane Street, and Chelsea Royal Hospital for old soldiers, the grounds of which are used for the Chelsea Flower Show each year.
When the Census was taken again in 1901 Harry had left home, and no records about his life or movements have been found. He obviously made his way to New Zealand at some unknown date, because he was working as a waterside worker in Wellington when the flu epidemic struck.
On 14 November 1918, the Wellington Waterside Workers’ Union held a stop-work meeting to consider recommendations from their National Disputes Committee that all vessels affected by influenza should be thoroughly disinfected, that crews should come ashore while cargo was being worked, and that all watersiders should pass through an inhalation chamber and the start and finish of each day. The Evening Post that day reported the view of the meeting that this action would be insufficient and, by a narrow margin, the final decision was to cease all work for seven days.
This attempt at containment was too late for Harry Barlow. He had been living at 121 Ghuznee Street for three months, but on Tuesday 12 November he complained to his landlord, one John Morgan, that he was ‘feeling poorly’. John said later that Harry stayed in bed for ‘two or three days and was nursed by Mrs Morgan.” By the Saturday, he appeared to have recovered and got up but two days later he had a bad attack of diarrhoea. At some stage during that afternoon Harry asked to borrow a pencil. In the early evening, John decided that, with no sign of improvement, he would fetch a local doctor. At about 7.30pm on the same evening John was in the room next to the one Harry occupied when he said he heard ‘a report of a revolver and a sound like a heavy thud’. John went into Harry’s room and ‘found him lying across the bed, unconscious. There was a revolver at this right side. There was a wound behind his right ear.’ The doctor arrived at about 8.30pm and a police constable was then summoned and arrangements made to transport Harry to hospital.
Before being moved, Harry regained consciousness and was reported to have said: ’I got very weak from influenza and I didn’t think it worthwhile. I got the revolver and shot myself.’ He went on to say that he had not made a will and asked that the Public Trustee should forward his money and personal belongings to his mother in England. A note was found on the dressing table in Harry’s room, the reason for his asking to borrow the pencil. The note said: ‘I am suffering terrible agony. I can hardly stand up. Do not write and tell my mother the way I met my death. I ought to have gone to a hospital. I believe the medicine was the wrong sort. The doctor could do nothing for me.’
The Superintendent of the Public Hospital informed the Coroner that Harry was practically unconscious when he was admitted, with a temperature of 105.6 degrees and signs of pneumonia. It was reported that he did not recover consciousness and died on 20 November. The Coroner returned a verdict that, in line with the medical evidence, ‘the cause of death was influenzal capillary bronchitis: although the victim had shot himself while depressed, the resulting wound was not the cause of death’. (Coroner’s inquest case file held by Archives New Zealand, Wellington)
Although Harry was reported to say that he had not prepared a will, he was helped to do so at the hospital. Written on a sheet taken from a hospital patient record book and dated 19 November 1918, it was in the handwriting on one of the witnesses, a Presbyterian Minister. Harry left his savings and cash, which he spelled out in detail, to his mother living in Chelsea, London. Too weak to write himself, he signed the will with the mark of a cross. Harry was not married, and his mother was his sole beneficiary. The Public Trustee later reported that the sum involved amounted to £259 (nearly $27,000 in 2016 values).
Researched and written by Max Kerr