Person:William Bentley (50)

William Henry (Bill) Bentley was born in 1898 In Sydney, NSW and at the time of his death he was 21 years old and living with his father, step-mother and most of his siblings and half-siblings at 42 Mitchell Street in Glebe, New South Wales. The funeral notices along with a letter from his father to his sister Ruby and another letter from his brother-in-laws mother to Ruby confirm that Bill was in a relationship with Ettie O’Sullivan, the younger sister of his brother In law, Mick O’Sullivan but that relationship was cut short when Bill died in on the 4th April 1919 of Pneumonic influenza, in Moore Park Emergency Hospital and he was buried on the 5th April in the Catholic cemetery at Waverley, NSW.

Bill's death was reported in Sydney newspapers as one of 18 or 19 (depending on the newspaper) 'Spanish Flu' deaths that occurred on the 5th April 1919. Between January-September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the 'Spanish Flu', killed 6,387 people in New South Wales, infecting as many as 290,000 in Metropolitan Sydney alone. The pandemic threw the people and Government of the State into a community effort rivalled only by that of the recent war, in an attempt to lessen the spread, and impact, of a deadly disease.

While copies of these articles can be seen online at the Trove website, [1] and [2] the scanned copies shown here were saved by members of the family and ended up amongst a collection of family information that was kept by his nephew, Frank O'Sullivan who was only 20 months old at the time of his Uncle Bill's demise.

1. ↑ Birth of William Bentley, in New South Wales, Australia. Registry of births, deaths & marriages. (Department of Justice, New South Wales Government)
   18250/1898, 1898.
2. ↑ Death of William Bentley, in New South Wales, Australia. Registry of births, deaths & marriages. (Department of Justice, New South Wales Government)
   12676/1919, 1919.
3. ↑ The Mirror (Sydney), in Australia. Trove Digitised newspapers and more. (National Library of Australia)
   page 2 (Influenza 19 Deaths), 6 Apr 1919.
4.   Pneumonic Influenza (Spanish Flu), 1919, in New South Wales State Archives & Records.

   Between January-September 1919, pneumonic influenza, commonly known as the 'Spanish Flu', killed 6,387 people in New South Wales, infecting as many as 290,000 in Metropolitan Sydney alone.1 The pandemic threw the people and Government of the State into a community effort rivalled only by that of the recent war, in an attempt to lessen the spread, and impact, of a deadly disease.

5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 The Sydney Morning Herald, in Australia. Trove Digitised newspapers and more. (National Library of Australia)
   page 15, 5 Apr 1919.

   As per the scanned funeral announcements shown on this page.