All Jonnie knows about Edward Roberts is that he was a docker from Liverpool
he's come to the docks with a copy of his great-grandfather's birth
certificate to try and find out more
name and surname of father Isaac Roberts so that would have been my
great-great-grandfather a name of mother ex the mark of any Roberts my Sarah next
there is that meant to be a signature the occupation of Isaac he was a doctor
so Edward grew up to be just like his dad
John is arranged to meet historian Sally sheared in butl close to where Isaac and
Edward once lived sally has found documents relating to when Johnny's
great-great-grandfather Isaac and his son Edward lived on haddock Street this
is from 91911 census so this would have been when Edward was one years old
yeah head of the family Isaac Roberts and that will be and his wife
total children born alive 8 so they had eight children yeah oh wow they had four
that died yeah
within two years by 1913 another of their children had died so they lost
they lost five out of their eight children so this is one of your
great-grandfather's brothers this was George Roberts the death certificates 13
months old yeah cause of death diarrhea and teething seven weeks they died from
yes it's crazy to think that in there and
there in Liverpool kids would die of diarrhea and teething issues yeah you
don't really think about you don't really associate that with this country
you know something so almost normal George died in September and we know
that in the summer months in the hot months would have been lots of flies
around and that that's the sort of thing that would have probably caused
outbreaks of infantile diarrhea I can also see from here that they were
a poor family because it says X the mark of Annie Roberts mother so she can't
write she's she's illiterate Johnny's great-grandfather Edward Roberts five
brothers and sisters all died from diseases linked to poverty and still
fatal in Britain at the turn of the 20th century
like gastroenteritis typhoid tuberculosis and bronchitis why is it
that they're getting all of these diseases it comes down to wealth Johnny
yeah it's that inequality it's the poverty of this family this was a really
poor part of Liverpool it's known as brutal brutal really and there's no
there's no National Health Service I can't imagine going through that well
that must have been like for them as parents to see five of their children by
your great granddad was one of the lucky ones
yeah so I've got a bit of better news for you no oh this is the marriage
certificate for my great-grandparents Edward of Mary yeah that's right so when
was this this was 1932 he would have been 22 yeah he's 22 she's 20 she's 21
he's marrying Mary Katherine Murphy and if you look here it's got Edward's
occupation Clara don't paper already yeah her father was a top Kleber as well
can you see what it says underneath each of those names others see is that
disease yeah it's both Edward and Mary age 22
and 21 they both lost their fathers when they got married oh that's great that's
that's really that's not something you'd associate with being 20 I've got one
final thing okay so this is a death certificate yeah of Isaac aged 50 and
what did he die from accident what is that can you read that I don't know what
that is okay that says anthrax anthrax accidentally contracted while working a
on board ship
Johnny's come to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to meet medical doctor
Nick beachy the school was founded in 1898 to help
understand diseases entering Liverpool through the docks
now I don't really know much about anthrax obviously I've heard of it
but I only really think about it in the kind of TV where they use it as like
biological warfare well you're absolutely right it has been used as a
as a terror weapon and has been used in recent times so before the Second World
War various countries including Britain I'm
afraid to say were weaponizing it because it's a disease of animals as
well as people and the way plans at one stage to drop infected cattle cake over
Germany really unfortunately they never used it but they did test it on an
island off Scotland called Granada Island
in 1942 top-secret military trials tested the impact of an anthrax powder
bomb on captive sheep
anthrax is a disease that affects livestock like sheep and cattle it can
be passed on to humans in the form of spores which live in infected hides wool
meat and bones if it's scratched into the skin it causes skin disease if you
inhale it it causes lung disease and if you swallow it it causes gut disease
this is a report from the newspaper around the time of your great-great
grandfather's inquest a verdict of death from anthrax was returned at the inquest
of Lil boi yesterday on Isaac Richard Roberts his widow said he did not
complain of being ill until a week ago when he showed her a pimple under the
under the chin it was stated that Roberts had worked from February 21st to
the 24th on board a vessel which had come from South America so how would it
have been having anthrax what would have happened to him I've got a picture of a
patient very similar to what would it be happens your great-great-grandfather you
know it starts a little pimple nothing different from any other pimple but then
after a couple of days start to feel unwell and get a big blister because
this bug produces lots of poisons that cause a lot of swelling and together
with that he would have had the blood poisoning as well so it would have
progressed from that little pimple over a week or so up to this sort of thing he
would have been sent to for Zachary Hospital that was the big isolation
Hospital for Liverpool and that's where they specialized in looking after
infectious diseases including anthrax also it was actually quite manageable
this was in the days before we had any antibiotics but they had some treatments
at about the time he had it and that pushed the death rate down to about 10%
all those so if the death percentage was so low how was it the Isaac my
great-great grandfather managed to be one of those unlucky ones there's a
report of all the admissions to Fazakerley Hospital over five years with
anthrax right your grandfather is here number 27
50-mile doc Libra days in on admission 7 so he would have felt ill for a week
yeah before which is a lot more it's the most on this list everyone's come in 2 3
4 days feeling the symptoms but he'd lasted 7 which I guess shows how tough
he would have been moribund on admission what's what's that moribund there's a
rather old-fashioned way of saying almost dead as you're really flat and
pretty near the end he obviously tried to stick it out for as long as he could
you could speculate that if he went in earlier like these other people that the
outcome might have been better Jeff raises more questions it does yes
why did he not go to hospital well he was a docker and if you don't work you
don't get paid so he would have probably wanted to do everything possible to keep
out of hospital that's great
you