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The first British soldiers to come ashore in Larnaca were the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment (the Black
Watch), on Monday 22 July 1878. The first fatality occurred that same day. Sergeant Samuel McGaw VC,
40 years of age, collapsed and died of ‘heat apoplexy’ (heat-stroke), on the three mile march to Chiflik
Pasha camp, sited near a stream leading into Larnaca Salt Lake. He and all his colleagues were poorly
prepared for the sweltering temperature, being dressed in standard issue red woollen tunics and thick
‘English pattern trousers.3 He was buried near where he fell, his grave marked with a simple wooden
marker.4
‘The grave of Sergeant McGaw VC’ The Illustrated London News, 17 August 1878
3 Cavendish, Anne, ed. (1991), Cyprus 1878 – The Journal of Sir Garnet Wolseley (Nicosia: Cyprus Popular Bank Cultural
Centre), p. 18. (Hereafter referred to as Wolseley Journal).
4 Betts, Dorothyann. Op cit, p. 8.
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