Page 115 - Who Was Sapper Brown

The Royal Army Medical Corps had only recently come into existence, by Royal Warrant signed by Queen
Victoria on 23 June 1898, a bare seven months before Private Edward Capel RAMC died in Cyprus on

8 February 1899 of enteric fever (typhoid) contracted while nursing ill soldiers of the 1st Battalion, The
Border Regiment.

Thirteen members of the newly formed RAMC died in the first six months of the Corps’ existence (four in

Malta, two in South Africa, and seven in Egypt or invalided from there). By contrast, only two members
of the Corps died in 1899 (one invalided from Malta and one in the Egypt Command. As the latter

included Cyprus, this would have been Private Capel). 3

Private Capel was the first member of the RAMC to die in service in Cyprus, and fittingly enough he

died as a result of caring for others despite the risks, holding true to the RAMC motto ‘In arduis fidelis’
(Steadfast in adversity).

A Medical Mystery –

The Story Behind the Headstone

Two soldiers died in Cyprus in 1899. The Army Medical Department Annual Report for 1899 records

that amongst the Warrant Officers, non-commissioned officers and men there was one death from enteric
fever, and one death from internal strangulation (of the intestines, probably due to hernia):

‘The three cases [of enteric fever] in Cyprus occurred at Troodos towards the end of the season. One case

proved fatal.’

‘In the case of internal strangulation at Cyprus, laparotomy was performed; in this case, the man was under
the influence of chloroform 2 1⁄4 hours, but he did not bear the operation well and gradually sank and died

12 hours afterwards.’

The same AMD Report records elsewhere that one member of the RAMC died in the Egypt Command

(including Cyprus) in 1899, as did a soldier from the 1st Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment, so these quotes
must refer to them.

Private Edward C Capel RAMC is clearly recorded on his headstone as dying in Polemidia on 8 February

1899, rather than at Troodos at the end of the season, so at first glance it would appear that he should be
the surgical patient mentioned above.

However, the inscription on his headstone unambiguously states that he died ‘from enteric fever’. How

can these facts be reconciled?

Some field research suggests a likely explanation.

Firstly, there is a grave in Polemidia of a soldier of the 1st Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment who died in

October 1899, which is consistent with the Annual Report so far. There are no military burials in Troodos
dating from 1899, so the soldier who contracted enteric fever there ‘at the end of the season’ must have

been transferred to the base hospital in Polemidia when the troops returned to their winter quarters,
dying there some weeks later. But Private Capel died in February 1899, so which season does the AMD

Report refer to in this condensed sentence? 1899, or the previous year’s?

3 Ibid, (1898 – 1899)

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