Page 27 - Who Was Sapper Brown

By mid-August many of the sappers and other troops were down with fever.16 Two sappers from the 31st
are recorded by Wolseley as having died soon afterwards, on 24 and 26 August, with another about to die,

though it is not recorded where they were buried.17 The sweltering summer heat, fly-borne and water-
borne illnesses (such as hepatitis, dysentery and typhoid) from the unhygienic living conditions, malaria

and an epidemic of a mysterious debilitating fever soon caused up to a quarter of the British garrison to
be on the sick list at any one time.18

On 29 August, the 31st Fortress Company moved from Nicosia to Mathiatis (Mathiades) to prepare

a temporary winter cantonment there for the garrison.19 This pleasant hillside location was some 20
miles west of Larnaca, and some 15 miles south of Nicosia. It was considered to be much healthier than

Larnaca. Detachments were also kept busy building the Larnaca to Mathiatis and the Kyrenia to Belapais

roads, which they finished by January. For much of their first year they were to be heavily involved in
road construction duties in particular.20

In the meantime, Wolseley was becoming increasingly alarmed at the rising death rate from illness in his

soldiers. He began seeking urgently to find a site to establish healthier summer quarters in a cooler hill
station location in time for his troops to escape the heat of the next summer season. This was in keeping

with common British practice throughout the Empire. He despatched a Royal Engineers survey team to
reconnoitre the Kyrenia and Troodos mountains for a suitable site, and soon the Troodos summit was

decided upon as the preferred location.

In the middle of January 1879, shortly before Sapper Brown died, Major Maitland RE and the 31st Fortress

Company were charged with the
formidable task of constructing

a 22-mile road through the hilly
terrain from Limassol to Platres,

the commissariat depot at the
foot of Mount Troodos. They

were then to construct a mule
track from Platres up the final five

miles of mountain to Troodos.
They employed some 6,000 local

labourers to help them in this

task. They finished the road to
Platres by April and the mule

track to Troodos in June, just in
time for the Government and

Garrison to decamp there for the
summer.

‘The move to summer quarters in Troodos, June 1879’ 21 (label attached to

this print, at St Columba’s Church, UN Protected Area, Nicosia).

16 Vibart, Major H M, Ibid, p. 491.
17 Wolseley Journal, Op cit, p. 60.

18 Report, 1 March 1879, by Surgeon General A D Home VC, KCB, Principal Medical Officer, Nicosia, on the medical history
of the troops stationed in Cyprus since July 1878’ (presented to the House of Commons 28 April 1879).
19 Ibid, p. 67
20 Ibid, p. 166

21 The original painting, by Johnny Jonas, was commissioned by the Royal Logistic Corps and hangs in their Officers’ Mess,
Deepcut, Surrey. It is entitled ‘Royal Waggoners, 1811’. It actually represents a scene in the Peninsular Campaign, but could
as easily represent the move to summer quarters in Troodos in 1879. Reproductions of this painting grace the Royal Logistic

Corps museum and the front cover of a prestigious book by Lieutenant Colonel D J Owen relating to the history of the Corps
and its antecedents (Gallant and Distinguished Service – The Royal Corps of Transport Medal Collection 1794 – 1993).

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