HERBERT WENHAM HANKS
Born: 1877, Ealing, Middlesex.
Died: 9th March 1902; age: 24; Died of Enteric Fever at Ermelo, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
ENTERIC FEVER Enteric Fever (eneterica serotype bacteria) was a rampant bacterial infection during the South Africa Boer War – 1899 – 1902.
This systemic disease, now known as Typhoid Fever, from the bacterium Salmonella typhi, is characterised by fever and abdominal pain. The disease is spread via the lymphatic system and can affect other parts of the body, or even the whole body. The symptoms usually developed a week or two after a person had became infected bringing on a high temperature, headaches, coughs, lethargy, aches and pains, lose of appetite, sickness and diarrhoea. After 2 – 3 weeks intestinal bleeding.
Enteric Fever was originally thought to be spread via dust storms and flies.
Human carriers with acute illness can contaminate the surrounding water supply through their faeces, which contains a high concentration of the bacteria. The polluted water supply can, in turn, taint the food supply. Enteric (Typhoid) Fever is then contracted by drinking, or eating the contaminated food or water. This bacteria can survive for weeks in water or dried sewage.
In 1897, an effective vaccine was developed by Almroth Wright and William Leisman, at the Army Medical School, Netley. At the time of the Boer War, the new inoculation had many side effects, and soldiers refused the voluntary immunisation. The inoculation was still voluntary in August 1914, when Great Britain entered the First World War.
Residence: 39, Berners Street, Westminster, and The Grange, Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Enlistment: Date: 15th January 1902, at Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Rank: Private; Service Number: 2379.
Regiment: Johannesburg Mounted Rifles, South Africa Field Force.
Clasp Awarded: Transvaal + South Africa 1902 medal – issued to his father – 26th November 1903.
CENSUS
1881 Hawthorn Villa, Sussex Road, Ealing, Middlesex.
Herbert was 3 years old and living with his parents & brother.
Herbert Hanks, 29, a Salesman & Decorator, born Marylebone, Middlesex.
Anna Louisa Hanks (nee Wenham), 28, born Alfriston, East Sussex.
Harold Douglas Hanks, 9 months, born Ealing.
1 visitor.
1 general domestic servant.
1891 Upperton College, Willingdon Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex.
Herbert was 13 years old, he was a boarder and scholar at Upperton College, Willingdon Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex – Head Master 63 year old William Esam, principal of the Sea House School, Eastbourne.
Soldiers’ Effects to Herbert Hanks – father, of Berners Street, City of Westminster, West End of London.
A 1910 advert for the family business.
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