Loch Maree Hotel botulism poisoning

Lore & Background

On 14 August 1922, a group of 35 people including sports fishermen, their wives, gillies and mountain climbers were present at the Loch Maree Hotel. They took packed lunches prepared by hotel staff. That evening, 48 people dined at the hotel. The first guest to fall ill was John Stewart at 3 a.m. on 15 August, with vomiting and drooped eyelids. By the time the local physician Dr Knox arrived later that morning, several others were ill. T. K. Monro, Regius Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics at Glasgow University, was called and arrived at 9 p.m., by which time the first death had occurred. By midday on 16 August, there was a third death and a second gillie had fallen sick. By the end of 17 August, six had died; the final two deaths occurred on 21 August. All eight victims were the only members of the group to have eaten duck paste sandwiches. The duck paste was home-canned by hotel staff. Investigators obtained leftover food from the hotel rubbish and found botulinum toxin. A sample from an ill gillie's leftover potted duck sandwich, buried in a garden to avoid hens, was recovered intact on the night of 17 August. The origins of the potted meat were traced to four jars purchased from Lazenby's of London in June 1922, but the production plant was found to be in good working order.

Reader's Guide

The incident was the first recorded outbreak of botulism in the United Kingdom and resulted in extraordinary publicity. The area was a popular location for holiday makers, sports fishermen and romantic breaks, and the poisoning occurred in the height of the holiday season. The hotel's scenic location made the unusual interest in the tragedy even more extensive. The public inquiry was held in Dingwall in September 1922 with intense publicity; one tabloid named the hotel 'The Hotel of Death'. The incident ultimately led to anti-toxins being made more easily available and packaging of preserved food was changed to allow easier identification of its origin. However, botulism did not become a notifiable disease in the UK until 1949. The events at Loch Maree are now used as a case study in the detection of food poisoning. Similar outbreaks are considered rare, with 17 incidents reported in the UK between 1922 and 2011, including a large outbreak in 1989 connected to hazelnut yoghurt and an episode in 2011 with a suspected link to a korma sauce.

Did You Know?

• The first person to fall ill was John Stewart, aged 70, who had been visiting the hotel regularly for the previous 40 years.
• A gillie died after being given a potted meat sandwich by a major and his wife who never ate potted meat.
• Future air marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst narrowly avoided poisoning because he and his family arrived late and were given ham sandwiches instead of potted meat.