This Fashionable Complaint? The Russian 'Flu Pandemic in Wales, 1889–1890

The impact of the Russian 'flu pandemic of 1889–90 in Wales has never been studied in depth, and is here surveyed for the first time using a mixture of printed and archival sources. The virus hit large swathes of the population, impacting the coal and tin industries and causing widespread closures of schools. While it is thought that the pandemic occasioned feelings of fear and even panic in English newspapers, in Wales press reaction was more prosaic. Institutional responses tended to reinforce class distinctions and promote the notion that the working classes were inclined to malinger.