The Scourge of Cholera
Despite the Mutiny the 70th Regiment’s most enduring memory of its first tour in India was more likely to have been of cholera which was prevalent throughout the country. It had lost thirty-one soldiers from the disease after its arrival at Calcutta during the hot weather of 1849. It had sustained seventy-five fatalities at Cawnpore during a major epidemic in 1853. The disease derives from contaminated water and food, and had a high mortality rate. Initial symptoms are diarrhoea and vomiting followed by agonizing cramp in the limbs and abdomen.
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| The Viceregal Lodge, Simla (Click to enlarge) |
Assistant Surgeon Dalzell was attached to the Regiment during the 1853 epidemic and was deeply impressed by the devotion of the comrades of the unfortunate sufferers “ - rubbing with their whole heart and soul to relieve them from the terrible cramps”. The Regimental History records “When the epidemic was at its worst many thought that the entire Regiment was doomed to death, yet nothing could exceed the soldier-like bearing of the soldiers of the Regiment and the devotion shown by them to their stricken comrades. Such an epidemic strains courage and discipline fully as severely as the most arduous campaign”. When the Seventieth marched out of Cawnpore on New Year’s Day 1854, they left 346 men, 37 women and 99 children buried in the cantonment.
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| The view of Simla showing the church. (Click to enlarge) |
The Massacre Ghat, Cawnpore (Click to enlarge) |
Typhoid and cholera were prevalent diseases in the 19th century, and cholera the major threat. World War Two saw the extension of preventative measures by inoculation and by water purification. The Queen’s and the 31st Regiments also experienced attacks during their first India tours when good hygiene and the establishment of temporary tented “cholera camps” until the outbreak had passed were recognised antidotes, but much depended on the locality in which the unit was stationed, and the 70th was unlucky in that respect
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