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Polemidia in Context
This cemetery was consecrated in 1882 by the Bishop of Gibraltar to serve the British Polemidia Garrison
(which consisted of the resident Line Regiment, at that time the Royal West Kents) just outside Limassol.
Polemidia has also been known as Polemidhia. The Garrison camp was situated on the hill overlooking
the cemetery, and is now the site of a Cypriot National Guard Barracks.
The cemetery contains some 450 burials, of which at least 61 are recognisably those of British military or
ex-military personnel, of all three Services, dating back to October 1882. There are three First World War
graves and five Second World War graves, cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Almost all ranks are represented in the cemetery–thus one will find a 2Lieutenant buried next to a
nd
retired Lieutenant-General. The remainder are mainly of dependants, though one will find an orientalist
and missionary, retired chaplains, seafarers, and others with a similar love of travel, among them.
Somehow it seems fitting that a carob tree, indigenous to Cyprus and the Mediterranean, takes pride of
place in the centre of this cemetery. The cemetery has now closed to new burials, apart from a couple of
reserved plots.
The carob tree in the centre of Polemidia cemetery
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