1918-1921 Diary of Ella Rogers

By December 1918 Ella Rogers had started the fifth and final volume of her war diary, a notebook of lined paper measuring 22.5 x 18 centimetres, detailing valuable first-hand information on the Spanish flu pandemic. Rogers herself contracted the disease in early January 1919, neglecting her diary for nearly two weeks. A survivor of the deadly pandemic, Rogers subsequently resumed her participation in regular meetings of the Golden Rule Division, a Christian service group in New Brunswick. Her 16 November 1919 entry describes the first Armistice Day anniversary celebration. On 6 January 1920, Rogers enrolled in Business at Mount Allison Ladies College (she would graduate in 1925 with a degree in oratory and begin a long career as a teacher). The diary ends in August 1921, when Rogers was twenty-one, with entries having become more irregular (only nineteen entries for the first eight months of the year).

Diary Transcription