Page 42 - Who Was Sapper Brown

Is it any wonder that they got ill? They had no occupation, for it was too hot for parades; no recreation;
nothing to do but to lie dozing on their backs under the canvas, shifting their knapsacks occasionally to save

their heads being blistered... it was much better to be sick and sent to the cool hospital tent, with plenty of
luxuries, even beer and pipes, than to lie idle in their shelterless tents.’ 18

It is not surprising that fever was rife amongst the soldiers that first summer and autumn in Cyprus,

whether it was due to malaria, the debilitating summer heat or any one of the illnesses related to the
unhygienic living conditions, such as typhoid, dysentery or hepatitis.

This was well before the connection between mosquitoes and malaria was recognised by Ronald Ross in

1897, a discovery that would win him a Nobel Prize in 1902,19 and that would enable effective preventive

measures to be undertaken.

‘In Cyprus malaria of the benign tertian type is the scourge of the island.’

Army Medical Department Annual Report, 1921

By the mid-20th century Cyprus would be considered one of the worst malarial regions in the world, with
allegedly up to 10,000 cases per annum.Malaria was the bane of the civilian and military population in
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Cyprus until it was eradicated from the island in 1949. This was after a three year campaign funded by

the Colonial Development Fund and led by the island’s chief health inspector, Mehmet Aziz, who had
been inspired by meeting Ronald Ross on a visit to Cyprus in 1913, with his team of Greek and Turkish

Cypriot health workers. The eradication of malaria from Cyprus is the greatest unequivocally beneficial
legacy of British rule in Cyprus.21

Apart from malaria, many more soldiers of the 42nd came down with a debilitating, and sometimes fatal,

prolonged feverish illness with rheumatic symptoms.22 This illness went by the term ‘remittent fever’. It
would be nearly another 30 years before it was found to be caught from drinking infected goats’ milk,

and later be renamed brucellosis in honour of Sir David Bruce, the discoverer of its causative organism.

The Departure of the Troops

The 71st Highland Light Infantry did not have long to wait after the 42nd departed on 10 November 1878,
for they left Cyprus on 15 December. Their departure signalled the exodus of all the original regiments of

Wolseley’s Expeditionary Force; only eight Companies of the 20th Regiment of Foot (newly arrived from
Halifax) and one company of Royal Engineers remained.23 Further reductions soon followed, such that

by August 1879 the British forces in Cyprus amounted to under 400 men.24

18 Ibid, pp. 38 – 40.
19 ‘The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1902 – Ronald Ross.’ www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laure-

ates/1902/ross-bio.html
20 Morgan, Tabitha (2010), Sweet and Bitter Island: A History of the British in Cyprus. (London: I B Tauris). Chapter 12: The
Great Liberator 1945 – 55, p. 198.
21 Ibid, p. 197.

22 Veale, H (Surgeon-Major). Report on the cases of fever from Cyprus, Malta and Gibraltar that were treated in the medical
division of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, during the year 1879. Army Medical Department 1881, Appendix III to Report
for 1879. pp. 260 – 276.

23 Distribution of the Army. Monthly return, 1 December 1878.
24 Hansard (Commons), Reply by Colonel Stanley, Volume 249, 8 August 1879, p. 507.

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