He may have had Tuberculosis- emigration possible?

[Ken MacLean]

A question regarding medical examination of prospective emigrants from the U.K in the early years of the last century:

A thread on another forum discusses the case of a young soldier discharged from the British Army in 1918 who then emigrated to Canada in May 1919.

He died in Canada of complications due to tuberculosis a year later; it has been suggested that he may have been discharged from the British Army after being diagnosed tubercular.

Would he have been allowed to emigrate to Canada having been previously diagnosed tuberculosis? I expect there would have been a "health check" of some sort for prospective emigrants by both U.K. and Canadian authorities.

Can anyone advise regarding screening of prospective emigrants health requirements?

For those who do not prefer a complete mystery, here he is:

http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2756400

He enlisted at Perth, 22 June 1915 and served with the Black Watch in France until being discharged 21 December 1915 "having made a mis-statement as to age on enlistment". His date of birth appears to be 26 August 1901, so yes, he was severely underage when he served in France.

[KarenM]

There is Grosse Isle, in Quebec which was used for Quarantine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grosse_Isle,_Quebec

I guess you would have to get his military file to see if it mentions he had TB? 

Did he come to Canada through Quebec or somewhere else?  He may have come up to Guelph through New York State.  It's actually a shorter distance than from Quebec.

Karen

[Ken MacLean]

Thanks Karen,

I found him in the manifest of "Metagama", departed Liverpool 24 May 1919, arrived Quebec City 3 June 1919. The ships manifest declares all on board healthy, no one held in quarantine.

[KarenM]

Maybe he didn't have symptons that the average Joe would reconize??  Plus, there must have been lots of comings and goings at that time with the war ending and also the flu epidemic, maybe the resources just weren't there to check everyone on entry.

The Canadian winter probably didn't help him at all

Karen

[Lydart]

Karen has just PM'd me to see if I can shed light on this ... I had TB at the age of 12 just as my parents had made all the arrangements to emigrate; somewhere to live, and my Dad had a job to go to.

But I was in hospital for over a year ... and we never went.  I have really no idea if what stopped the whole idea was my TB and my parents wanting to stay here, or if we were barred because of it ...

This was in 1955 ...

[aghadowey]

Many soldiers in World War I had lungs damaged by gas attacks so perhaps he was invalided out due to being gassed and his death in 1919 was war related.

[KarenM]

Thanks Lydart 

I have 3 cases of tb    My gr grandfather died of TB in 1921.  My Uncle Joe on my dad's side had tb as well, but recovered enough that he was able to serve in the RCAF in WWII.  My other uncle Joe on my mum's side, wasn't so lucky and died in the TB Sanitorium in Kitchener.  He was from Guelph and that's where they were sent. 

Karen