Senior Sergeant John Burrows

John Burrows (Sergeant No 472A) contracted influenza while performing his duty, aged 42.

Marking 100 years since 14 Police Officers died in the 1918 Influenza Epidemic

As with all influenza pandemics it is the weak, the elderly, the very young and the immune compromised that succumb. Because of the toll that was taken across the country New Zealand Police were required to attend to the dead and enter households where the illness was rife, in place of medical professionals, public health officials and funeral directors. They had a much greater chance of catching the disease.

At a time when the entire Police Force numbered less than 1000 this was a huge percentage and represented a great loss to New Zealand Police.

The Commissioner's annual report of 1919 indicated that at its height as many as 65 members of the Auckland District Police were off sick. The Commissioner paid tribute to the heroic and unselfish work carried out by police throughout the country - aiding the sick, burying the dead and giving assistance to local bodies, relief organisations and medical staff. Most of the police who died are believed to have contracted the disease in the execution of their duty and grants of compassionate allowances were made to their widows and children.

On the 16 December 1918 the Police Commissioner John O’Donovan wrote in the Police Gazette:
“The Honourable the Minister of Justice desires to place on record here his deep regret for the death of these valuable officers, and his sense of the loss the Department has sustained thereby. He also desires to express his admiration of the manner in which all ranks acquitted themselves during the influenza epidemic and thus obtained the approbation of the people in general. I desire to be associated with the Hon. the Minister in this expression of his sentiments.”