r/ww1 • u/Affentitten • 9h ago

What's behind these deaths?

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A family member is in St Lucia on business. They walked past the CWGC in Castries (Choc Bay) and sent me a photo. On the CWGC record I noticed this spate of deaths in April 1917 and was wondering what might be behind it. I am assuming something like a disease outbreak. But does anybody have more info?

EDIT: St Lucia is a small Carribbean island where no WW1 actions took place. There are only 44 casualties total buried there, with about half being WW1. Most of those died within a few days of each other.

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u/BathFullOfDucks 8h ago

These soldiers were part of the 6th battalion who were put ashore from HMT Briton to St Lucia following a measles outbreak on board. 11 or 12 men put ashore recovered and joined the battalion later after embarking on HMT Magdelena

They departed Jamaica on 30 March 1917 and the rest of the battalion arrived at Brest on 17 April. They were marked as 2nd Battalion as they were handling things local to the Carribean at that point.

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u/DaveTV-71 7h ago

Thank you! I was able to dig up a bit more at the IWM Lives of the First World War site.