During these six months more than 1000 people contracted the waterborne disease, resulting in 113 fatalities. It was one of Lincoln's biggest peacetime tragedies, caused by a polluted supply of drinking water from a reservoir at Hartsholme Lake and the River Witham.
Faced with a crisis, the local council, the Lincoln Corporation, had procrastinated and came under huge criticism as it emerged seven weeks had elapsed between the first case being reported and the issuing of a warning suggesting citizens boil their drinking water.
When rumours began that the members of the council were receiving clean drinking water from outside the area, local artist A.E. White was inspired to paint a satirical image showing council members being boiled in a pot by two demons whilst death looked on. The caption reads: Why not boil them for ten minutes in their own water. Local businessman Fred Burkitt, who owned a fruit shop on the corner of West Parade and Park Street, bought the painting and hung it in his shop window. It attracted so much interest that police said it was causing a public nuisance and persuaded him to take it down.
For the next century, this interesting fragment of social history remained in the family, recently passing to Burkitt's grandson, a retired telecommunications engineer, who lives near Lincoln. He decided to sell the painting in its 100th anniversary year at Thos. Mawer and Son of Portland Street, Lincoln, on June 4.
Sold together with a booklet about the typhoid outbreak, entitled The Enemy in Our Midst, and several newspaper cuttings from the period, it sold to a local gentleman for £650 (plus 15% buyer's premium) and will now remain in the city.
Roland Arkell
