About Broken Columns

My name is Andrew Scobie, and I live in South Perthshire. Like most people, I knew of the Spanish Influenza pandemic but very little about it. I started taking an interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, I was curious about how many Spanish flu deaths there had been in my local area. I soon realised there was virtually no readily available information. I started my research using the death registrations provided by the National Records of Scotland. As soon as I got numbers, I began noting names. Soon after that, I started seeking victims’ graves in local cemeteries. In January 2022, after locating the grave of a Spanish flu victim, I encountered another belonging to a COVID-19 fatality: two pandemics, two graves, one century apart. At that moment, it dawned on me that whilst COVID-19 deaths were a very ‘public’ tragedy, society has wholly forgotten the Spanish flu dead; indeed, I know of no memorials to the latter in the United Kingdom. I believe that Spanish flu victims deserve commemoration. Last year, I published a small book entitled ‘Broken Columns, the Spanish Flu Dead of Rural South Perthshire 1918-1919. The book does what it says in the title by listing the names and graves I located and providing a short blurb about their lives. This website is the next stage in my mission to commemorate the Spanish flu dead.