Looking Back: Church helps in Typhoid Outbreak

July 1964

The thoughts and prayers of many were with the people of Aberdeen who suffered in the typhoid outbreak – and especially patients, nurses, and medical staff, including the M.O.H and his assistants.

Church members threw their weight behind the massive welfare work needed in the typhoid epidemic.

Hospital Chaplain, the Rev D. Graham Lyle, of King Street Church, worked to the point of exhaustion. As one patient put it, “He really had it hectic. The moment he entered the hospital he had to take off his jacket and wrist watch and roll up his shirt sleeves, so anything about his hands and arms which might brush up a germ was safely tucked away. Then he had to wear a special gown and change it for another every time he went between one or other of the nine wards.” From bed to bed he went with a smile, a word and sometimes a prayer. All this in addition to keeping contact between patients and their relatives. His work was helped later in the campaign by the Presbytery’s appointment of ten other ministers to assist throughout the city hospitals.

Many former nurses volunteered for emergency service in the hospitals. No tribute can be too high for ministers, volunteers and regular nurses and doctors who worked so hard during the worst of the epidemic.

*Historical note:

During the outbreak, over 400 cases were diagnosed and three people died. It was traced to contaminated tinned corned beef sold in a branch of William Low’s supermarket. The infected meat then contaminated a meat slicing machine within the shop, leading to the spread of the disease.

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