The _Finchley Press_, for November 13, 1914, contained the following
particulars:
“MILITARY HONOURS.
“FUNERAL OF A FINCHLEY DRILL-INSTRUCTOR YESTERDAY.
“Drill-Instructor Nichols, of 42, Sedgemere Avenue, who was
well known in Finchley, has passed away at the age of fifty-one
as the result of _the after effects of inoculation_. A big,
strong, healthy-looking man, the news will come as a surprise
to those who knew him.
“There was a large attendance at St. Marylebone Cemetery at the
funeral yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, when Mr. Nichols was
buried with military honours.”
A resident at East Finchley sent the following particulars to the
Anti-Vaccination League of London:
“Mr. Nichols had been a Territorial for about eight years, and
as a boy was intended for Sandhurst College, but circumstances
prevented this. A keen soldier, and particularly clever
at drilling recruits, he was being kept for Home Service.
Understanding that inoculation was compulsory for the men, he
underwent the operation as an example and encouragement.
[Illustration:
FIG. 16. Sergeant H. Nichols, of East Finchley, England,
died on November 4, 1914, from the effects of anti-typhoid
inoculation.
]
“On Saturday, October 24, he was inoculated a second time on
the left side of chest. He was taken ill at once and went home
to bed, complaining of a dreadful beating on the top of his
brain. On the Monday he reported himself ill and was given
the half-day off with the others, but passed for duty for the
Tuesday and Wednesday and sent on an eight-mile march. On the
Thursday he woke up with severe trembling, later on partial
paralysis set in with very severe delirium, kidney trouble,
swollen tongue and many other distressing symptoms. Also
his heart, which had always been passed as perfectly sound,
was very bad. Two nurses and his own doctor (a believer in
inoculation) attended him. On the day of his death, November 4,
his pulse was 144.
“Sergeant Nichols was a very strong man, never ill, and looked
more like forty than fifty years of age. His photograph
indicates his ‘fitness.’ For some time before his death he
did sergeant’s work and was known as full platoon sergeant,
but the papers verifying this only came through, Mrs. Nichols
understood, just about the time of his death, so that he is
described as corporal on death certificate, but she says he had
a sergeant’s funeral and is described as such on the gravestone.
“Mr. Nichols’ death was a great shock to his friends, some of
whom saw him two weeks before death, when he was telling them
how ‘very fit’ he was feeling, and how thoroughly his heart was
in his work.”
The death certificate in this case gives the cause of death as: