Dunlop, R McH. (Robert McHutchinson)
No photo at present
Gunner Robert Dunlop was married to Annie Navin, father to Edwin and Robert, son or Mr and Mrs J.H. Dunlop.
Robert died of pneumonia in Shoreham-by-Sea. He had just returned from France on the 22nd after only being there for four months. He had been seriously wounded.
It is possible though that he may have died from the 1918 outbreak of the Spanish Flu pandemic.[1]
The Spanish flu is rather deceiving as it did not originate in that country of its namesake. Spain though was the first country to openly report on the pandemic due to its neutrality in the war. Therefore, the illness received its name by this association.
The outbreak began around January 1918 and ended at the end of 1920. There were three major outbreaks, each deadlier than the previous. Great efforts were made to suppress the news, but so many people were affected that it became pointless as the flu crept through the armies and into the villages, towns, and cities of Europe. There were no vaccines to protect against this flu virus or the infections, no antiviral drugs to treat it and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections like pneumonia. The only tools that authorities could implement was the promotion of good personal hygiene, isolation, and quarantine of the ill, along with the closures of public places.
There are several servicemen in the City Cemetery who possibly died of the illness, most of whom were diagnosed with meningitis, flu, or pneumonia. It especially affected young adults.
Robert was laid to rest on the 4th of November 1918 with full military honours. On the same day Second Lieutenant John Moore Montgomery, of the 10th Inniskilling Fusiliers was also laid to rest. He was a victim of the Spanish flu as well.
He was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
Date of Death: 31/10/1918
Service: Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery
Service Number: 182350
Burial Location: Londonderry (or Derry), City Cemetery, SB. 286.
[1] Spanish Flu: 50 to 100,000,000 deaths.
