Page 28 - Who Was Sapper Brown
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The Royal Engineers had been aided by the 20th Regiment of Foot. This Regiment had replaced the 71st
Highland Light Infantry in Cyprus in December 1878 and spent the winter based at Mathiatis employed
on the road construction works to Platres.22 The 20th Foot left Mathiatis on 1 May 1879 and established
the first camp on the summit of Mount Troodos on 5 May 1879.
The 31st Fortress Company moved down to winter quarters in October 1879. These quarters were in
the new hutted camp at Polemidia, outside Limassol, alongside the 20th Foot, who are known to have
been encamped at Polemidia for the winter of 1879 – 1880.23 There is no record of Mathiatis having been
occupied for more than one winter.
The 31st Fortress Company was to remain the resident Engineer Company in Cyprus until most of the
unit deployed to Hong Kong in April 1885,24 leaving only a tiny detachment behind.25
The Deadly Toll
In memory of the men and children of 31st Fortress Company Royal Engineers
(memorial located at Troodos Cemetery)
22 Smyth, B (1889), History of the XX Regiment 1688 – 1888 (London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co), pp. 279 – 280.
23 Smyth, B. Op cit, p. 280.
24 De Santis, Edward ‘Narrative on the life and military service of 14060 Superintending Clerk Rudolph Frankenberg Royal
Engineers’, www.reubique.com/14060.htm
25 General Monthly Returns of the British Army (April and May 1885)
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