Rev J. P. Way, Warwick School headmaster 1885 to 1896, was full of concern for the pupils under his care. In an appeal in January 1890 to the teaching staff, which closely mirrors recent events, he wrote:

“I would draw the attention of Masters to the question of the ventilation of class rooms during school hours, or at least at the change of hours.  It is always important, indeed vitally so to a larger boarding school; and at the present time they say that the prevailing epidemic has been far worse where many people are crowded together in ill ventilated rooms, especially in the notoriously ill ventilated rooms of the London Post Offices.”

The epidemic was presumably influenza.