From the Sheaf, vol.7, no. 1, December 1918, p. 58-59. Image and biography of John Fraser a student who died during the influenza (flu) epidemic of 1918.

View of a portion of the Roll of Honour, inscribed with the names of 23 persons who served as volunteer nurses during the Influenza Epidemic of 1918) on the first floor of the College Building. Names: Mrs. John Allan MacDonald, Abigail DeLury, Annie M. (Nan) McKay, Christina Cameron Murray (daughter of Walter Murray), Eileen Bell, Kathleen Stevenson (became ill), Stella Methery, Ada Louise Staples (became ill), Katherine Margaret Manson (became ill), Isabel [Isobel] Aberdeen Reid, Vida Mooney, Lulu Mabel Barr, Etta McLeod (became ill), Tena McRae (became ill), Ethel Annie MacFarlane (became ill), Oscar [Oskar] Knodt (became ill), Otto R. Thompson, William G. Hamilton (died), C.S. Hallman, T. Thorvaldson, Mrs. W.C. Murray (Christine Cameron Murray), Janet Crawford, Merle Elizabeth Soare (became ill).

Bio/Historical Note: As the Spanish flu arrived in Saskatoon in 1918 after World War I, Walter C. Murray, University President, gave people a chance to leave the campus if they wished, then ordered a quarantine. The campus for the most part was isolated from the rest of the city, except for Emmanuel College, which became an emergency treatment centre staffed mostly by women volunteers. In granting the use of the building on 19 Oct. 1918, the college only asked that the city fumigate the building and bedding when they were no longer needed. One of the student volunteers who assisted at Emmanuel College became ill after two days and died several days later, Murray reported to the man’s mother in a letter. The student, William G. Hamilton, received full funeral honours, including a procession at the university. Hamilton, a widower, left behind three young children. Murray wrote to his mother that if he had known the young man had children depending upon him, they would have tried to dissuade him from offering his services.

Three images of the funeral procession of William Hamilton, who died while working as a volunteer nurse in the temporary hospital the City had set up at Emmanuel College during the Spanish Influenza Pandemic.
Photos A, B, C: Procession on campus; Dean of Agriculture's Residence at left, Saskatchewan Hall at right.
Photos D and E show a funeral procession [held around the same time as William Hamilton's; perhaps in Eastern Canada].
Photo D: Pallbearers carry a casket down a residential street. Marchers, women and men, walk behind.
Photo E: Procession on a residential street; marchers walking away from camera. People standing at far right.

Bio/Historical Note: William George Hamilton, Pharmacy student and widower with three children, contracted the Spanish Flu and died after serving as a volunteer nurse. Hamilton died on 15 November 1918, age 39. Hamilton’s wife, Mabel Isabelle (Coxworth) Hamilton, died on 28 March 1917, age 21. They are buried at Fairmede Cemetery, Wawota, Saskatchewan.