Page 25 - Who Was Sapper Brown

‘That night, the Admiral formed his plan; a subtle and a humorous plan. Our entry should be made at once,
but in a friendly and civilian spirit... All [Turkish] salaries were in arrears... The Admiral proposed to enter

Cyprus with some sacks of newly-minted sixpences, and to send before him news that he was going to pay
off all arrears... He was to go at once, without a guard... and to drive up quietly to Nicosia with his secretary,

and a couple of mules laden with English sixpences. He would enter Nicosia as the minister of a Queen who
never falls into arrears, and let the people understand that he was ready to pay the Sultan’s debts. Was any

man, from pasha to zaptieh, likely to repulse an ally of the Sultan who proposed to hand him over his arrears
of pay?

But there were difficulties in his way about the flag ... the fixed rule in the service is that the flag shall never

go without a guard. Since the flag must go, men must go with it, in sufficient numbers to impose respect.

Rawson9 was appointed to carry up the flag; and telling off a company, fifty of Captain Kelly’s marines, and
fifty blue jackets, he returned with them to shore...’

Vice-Admiral Lord John Hay, the day he took over Cyprus10

9 Captain Rawson RN, captain of HMS Minotaur, flagship of Vice Admiral Lord John Hay. Wolseley rated him ‘a first rate
fellow, just like his brother who was with me in Ashanti: a rough and ready man who will turn his attention to anything he is
asked to do, and do it well’. Wolseley Journal, Op cit, p. 34.

10 Photograph of Vice-Admiral Lord John Hay, and the day he took over Cyprus on behalf of the Queen, reproduced with
permission by the British High Commission, Cyprus.

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