Page 41 - Who Was Sapper Brown

at least five of them being buried here in Kyrenia13, and four in Paphos14. It is not known where the
remaining three were buried, though it would be reasonable to assume that they would have been buried

near Chiflik Pasha camp (Larnaca) or alongside their comrades in Kyrenia or Paphos.

Their graves are now lost. The author has not been able to trace any 19th century burial registers from
either cemetery to corroborate this. A further Royal Highlander who had been invalided home died en

route (whether in Malta or at sea is uncertain), and another invalid died in hospital in England in 1879.15

Captain Scott-Stevenson’s wife, Esme, wrote eloquently in May 1879 about those first few months in
Kyrenia and the establishment of the burial ground there of The Royal Highlanders:

‘It was about this time that fever was playing great havoc amongst my husband’s soldiers ...

It should be noted that the fever was seldom fatal; for although one-fourth of the men were in hospital at one
time, only three deaths [sic] occurred in the whole regiment.16 The remains of these poor fellows lie in a little

graveyard situated just above the site of the encampment, shaded by olive and carob-trees. After the Forty-
Second left, my husband asked permission to have the land and trees bought, which was readily granted, and

a neat wall and gate were put round the enclosure.

It had a good effect in showing the Cypriotes that the English not only could be just to the living, but
respected and cared for the remains of their dead. Besides, my husband took another view of the case. As a

soldier himself, he knew that these poor men’s lives had been just as much sacrificed for their country as if

they had been killed in battle.’ 17

The soldiers had previously been encamped in the roasting hot camp of Chiflik Pasha next to the stagnant
mosquito-ridden waters of the Larnaca Salt Lake for a month, almost eaten alive by sandflies as well as

mosquitoes, before moving to Kyrenia by sea on or around 21 August. There they were again encamped
on a hot and airless plain, baking within their single bell tents in the daytime and shivering under a

blanket at night:

‘The Forty-Second were encamped at a place called “Chifflick Pasha”, the very hottest spot that could possibly
have been selected. For miles around there was not a tree or a shrub of the height of a foot, and the blazing

sun penetrated through the thin canvas of the single bell tents, as if mocking the puny efforts of men to protect

themselves from its fierceness... Though giving every encouragement to the sun, they carefully excluded all
passage of air to lessen the torture of the poor men who lay all day gasping in the intolerable heat.

The nights were cold and chilly in comparison to the day heat; and for three months the soldiers, having no

mattresses, were forced to sleep on the bare ground, with only a blanket to cover them.

When taken round to Kyrenia the troops were again encamped on a flat plain... without a tree of any kind
to shelter them in the daytime.

13 The four soldiers of the 42nd Royal Highlanders with identified graves in Kyrenia are also commemorated in the Angli-

can church of St Andrew, in Kyrenia. On the north wall of the nave of the church hangs a wooden commemorative shield with
four brass plates listing their names.
14 Harfield, A. G (1978), ‘British military presence in Cyprus in the 19th century.’ Journal of the Society for Army Historical

Research Vol. 56, No. 227, pp.160 – 172. Two companies of the Black Watch were based in Paphos until the regiment left Cy-
prus on 9 November 1878. Four men from this detachment died and were buried there. When the old Christian cemetery in
Paphos was converted into a public park (sometime in the 1960s or early 1970s), the headstones were transferred to Dhekelia
Military Cemetery. One was lost and the other three were broken, but details from these three were transferred to memorial

plaques at St Barnabas Church, Dhekelia. The author has been unable to ascertain the original location of this cemetery or the
name of the fourth soldier.
15 Army Medical Department Annual Reports (1878 – 1879).

16 Mrs Scott-Stevenson is incorrect here. The 42nd Royal Highlanders lost 12 men during their stay in Cyprus.
17 Scott-Stevenson, Esme (1880), Our Home in Cyprus (London: Chapman and Hall), pp. 37, 45.

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