During the last year we have had to become accustomed to living through a pandemic.

Our forebears a century ago, along with the rest of the world, endured an influenza epidemic of unprecedented proportions. 

This has been called the greatest demographic event of the twentieth century, sweeping across the world as the First World War was coming to an end, and dwarfing in its impact the two world wars.

Scientists and policy makers at the time did not have access to the knowledge and skills we have today, but nevertheless had to devise strategies to combat the spread of the disease and the treatment of those taken ill. In this talk Peter Hounsell explores the year of the Spanish Flu (1918-1919), and the response to it in the United Kingdom, in London and in Ealing and the surrounding districts.