Page 184 - Who Was Sapper Brown

Canadian UN Burials

Visitors to this cemetery may be surprised to see a row of nine graves (in Plot 3, Row A) honoured by

Canadian flags, and which bear the names of individuals from various Canadian regiments.

The explanation is simple. Following the outbreak of hostilities between Greek and Turkish Cypriots in
December 1963, Dhekelia Military Cemetery also became for a while the burial ground for British and

Commonwealth forces serving as peacekeepers with the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP),
which was established by the UN Security Council on 4 March 1964. UNFICYP is now one of the longest-

running UN peacekeeping operations in the world, and celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014.12

The first fatality The Canadian Army contributed to this peacekeeping force from its inception,

despatching its rapid deployment infantry battalion, the 1st Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment, ‘the
Vandoos’,13 from Quebec City, Quebec to Cyprus that same month. The Royal Canadian Dragoons,

equipped with Ferret armoured cars, were tasked with providing the armoured reconnaissance squadron.
Tragically, their first fatality occurred on 31 July 1964 when 29-year old Trooper Joseph Hector Campbell

swerved to avoid an old woman and her sheep on a winding mountain road. His Ferret crashed over
an embankment, overturned and killed him instantly.14 The following day, the Mayor of the small Greek

village near the scene of the accident arrived with a wreath of flowers in hand to express the sympathy of
the villagers and to thank the Dragoons for taking care of them. Trooper Campbell is commemorated by

a Regimental hockey trophy named in his memory. 15

12 For an excellent and well-referenced account of how Cyprus was eventually torn apart by war in 1974 and why UNFICYP

is still in existence, read John Hughes-Wilson’s ‘The Forgotten War – A brief history of the battle for Cyprus, 1974’ in The RUSI
Journal (October / November 2011), Vol 156, No. 5, pp. 84 – 92.
13 ‘Vandoos’, the nickname of the 22nd Regiment, from ‘Vingt Deux’

14 The Ferret armoured car was notoriously top-heavy and prone to overturning, often with fatal consequences.
15 Website of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Regimental Family www.dragoons.ca/cyprus.html

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