Influenza at the Featherston barracks

Rows of barracks at Featherston Military Camp, taken c1918.

The 1918 influenza virus proved most deadly among young men, such as those in military camps. Approximately two thirds of all Europeans who died were male, with the worse affected male age group those aged 30–34. Influenza historian Geoffrey Rice suggests that this may have been because many of the male victims never caught the mild first wave of the flu. He also notes that men were more likely to develop pneumonic complications, because unlike their children or wives who could go to bed, they had to ‘soldier on′ as the breadwinners of the family.