There was a dramatic story in my family about my mother's brother who died from diphtheria in 1928. Grandma was 7 months pregnant, there was deep snow, no money for the doctor, so Gran walked two miles in the snow carrying her two year old son to hospital. When she got there he was dead. The Matron gave her a cup of tea before she walked back home again and Gran spoke of this kindness for the rest of her life!
I thought it was unlikely this happened but eventually got his death cert. He did indeed die of diptheria, in early Feb and was "dead on arrival at hospital" - diptheria 5 days. He wasn't quite two years old.
I must admit, I never considered an outbreak or an epidemic, but where there's one case of diptheria there must be many.
Much earlier and in Lancashire, one Vicar obligingly wrote causes of death in the burial register and it was often possible to spot an epidemic or at least a virulent outbreak, which decimated the children mostly, of course.I
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