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CHARLES COLLINS was born in Smethwick on 5th October 1882. He was raised in Smethwick, attending Corbett Street School and living in Edith Road, Bearwood Hill and Exeter Road. On his 18th birthday he married a lady called Emily in the King’s Norton Register Office. Three months later he volunteered for service in the Worcestershire Company of the Imperial Yeomanry (Regimental Number 22392). He told a “porkie” when enlisting making himself two years older than he really was.
On the 13th March 1901 he embarked for the Boer War in South Africa. He returned to Blighty on 5th September 1902 some 9 months before the war ended but, based on my researches, volunteers were not required to do more than a year in South Africa and Charles had done well over that.
On return he was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal with four clasps – Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal & South Africa 1902. Charles & Emily had a daughter called Rose born in Smethwick in 1905 and then moved to Sutton Coldfield where he worked as a motor mechanic.
On 13th June 1915 Charles once again stood up to the plate and enlisted in the Motor Transport Section of the Army Service Corps (105281) – this time he did not need to lie about his age. On the 7th August 1915 he was promoted to Sergeant and on 3rd March 1916 he embarked for France attached to a motorised machine gun squad.
On 27th June 1916 he was invalided back to Blighty – not wounded but seriously ill. I won’t describe his symptoms but after several medical examinations it was concluded that he had contracted Bilharzia whilst serving in South Africa. He had suffered mild symptoms when home but “soldiered” on and never sought medical help (we are talking pre NHS) and he obviously never mentioned the symptoms at his WW1 enlistment medical.
On 6th September 1917 the Medical Board decided his service in France had aggravated the condition and awarded him a one-off payment of £50 (about £4,500 in today’s money). Charles was discharged "No longer physically fit for War Service".
The Medical Board Report contains an incredible (in my opinion) additional note, presumably written by the chair of the board: “Bilharzia does not seem to injure a man much. I have seen many men who have had it for years without ill effect. This man has had it about 16 years”. (Stiff upper lip you chaps!!)
I wonder how many other of the 347,000 British troops who served in the Boer War came back with undiagnosed Bilharzia?

Hello Smethwick
Thanks for Sharing this information.
I would think many soldiers came home with Bilharzia.
It looks like it is still around today.

See attached link

www.nhs.uk/conditions/schistosomiasis/

A friend returned from a trip to Central America a couple of years ago suffering from Schistosomiasis..... It took a while to diagnose as it is not normally found here in Canada of course, but went on a treatment for 4 weeks and is OK now..... Husband and family had to go in for tests every couple of months......

M.

Schistosomiasis (bilharzia) is endemic in the waters of those rivers of South Africa which flow into the Indian Ocean, from the Mocambique border down to the Eastern Cape. It doesn't often cause a debilitating illness year later, unless the individual was exposed over many years esp.childhood. This is because the worms do not replicate in the human body, so only a heavy repeated exposure to infected water leads to a high worm burden and high egg burden.
Light infections with urinary schistosomiasis (Schistosoma haematobium) can cause a form of cystitis, such as blood in the urine or urgency of passing urine; light infections with the intestinal form (Schistosoma mansoni) can cause loose stools. At the time of the South African War and the Great war, none of the modern cures were known. Nowadays a single handful of pills is all that is needed.
If your ancestor served in Natal, the Tugela River is a likely source, but it would be a light infection.
Can you find out exactly where he served in SA?
Many South Africans, including myself, have evidence of immunity from past infection but most are fit as a flea.
The infection is also endemic in Mesopotamia and East Africa, if he served in either theatre of operations during the Great war.

"Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia or ‘snail fever’, is a disease caused by parasites (worms called schistosomes) carried by freshwater snails. The disease affects over 240m people globally and causes an estimated 200,000 deaths a year. The parasite is most commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa, but also lives in parts of South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East and Asia."
Biharzia is treatable these days but back at the time of the Boer War & First World War this was not the case as is shown by the attached obituary of Major George Brooke Millers Rawlinson which appeared in the Army & Navy Gazette of 27th September 1913.
The disease seems to have developed more slowly in the case of Charles of Smethwick.

A decade or two ago, my younger brother died in his early 60's of stomach and liver cancer that stemmed from a chronic infestation of bilharzia worms. He had debilitating flare-ups for almost all of his adult life thanks to his youthful feeling of immortality and his failure to seek early treatment. In spite of his condition he managed to maintain his reputation as the family black sheep living life to the full.
Brett