John Brooke – The Brighouse Smallpox Outbreak.

Local historian, John Brooke, gave us a fascinating account of the smallpox outbreak of 1892. In a time before the NHS, fear and panic hit the town as smallpox spread through the population.

It was brought under control by the building of the Clifton isolation hospital and by a programme of vaccination.

John has a wealth of background information about the individuals involved, their living conditions and about the history of vaccinations. Parallels between this epidemic and the Covid 19 pandemic were hard to miss.

Please come again John – we really enjoyed your talk and your detailed knowledge of our local history.