Page 43 - Who Was Sapper Brown

This is in stark comparison to the original strength of the Expeditionary Force that had landed in July
1878, and was recorded as amounting to 2,643 British troops and 5,015 Indian troops (which included

one company of Royal Artillery),25 though almost all the Indian contingent had returned to India within
a month or so.

The Indian troops are recorded as having lost several men during their six months outside India,26 but no

record has been found of any of these having died during their few weeks in Cyprus.27 The Indian Sappers
and Miners in particular lost two European non-commissioned officers, three Indian other ranks, and

three followers during their stay outside India. While in Cyprus they suffered from the same epidemic of
fever that ravaged the British troops:

‘By this time [end August 1878] all the companies were a good deal impaired in strength by the almost
universal fever.’ 28

Sergeant Samuel McGaw VC29

Sergeant Samuel McGaw remains the most notable, if not the most distinguished, occupant of this cemetery,

his life being described by Dorothyann Betts in her book, The Old British Cemetery Kyrenia – Shadows of
Empire.

The record of 141 Sergeant Samuel McGaw’s death, in his regiment’s Muster Book.30

25 ‘The Cyprus Report.’ British Medical Journal 1879, 5 July, p. 11 (commenting on the Report by Surgeon General A D
Home VC, Principal Medical Officer, presented on 28 April 1879 to the House of Commons).
26 Harfield, Alan (1990), The Indian Army of the Empress 1861 – 1903 (Kent: Spellmount), pp. 53 – 54.

27 The surviving records of the Indian regiments of the Raj are held in the Asia section of the British Library, London,
rather than in the National Archives. A search among the records of the 25th Regiment Madras Native Infantry (IOR/L/
MIL/17/3/517) and the Indian Army Officers Casualty Returns for 1878 (IOR/L/MIL/14/128) did not show any record of

fatalities during their time in Cyprus. The records of the 31st Punjab Native Infantry (IOR/L/MIL/17/2), the Queen’s Own
Sappers and Miners (IOR/L/MIL/17/3), and the Bombay Sappers (IOR/L/MIL/17/4), who are listed by Major Vibart (below)
as forming part of Wolseley’s Expeditionary Force, could not be examined during the author’s visit.
28 Vibart, Major H M (1883), The Military history of the Madras Engineers and Pioneers, from 1743 up to the present time

(London: W H Allen and Co), p. 493.
29 Sergeant Samuel McGaw was a Lance Sergeant in 1874 when he earned his Victoria Cross. He was subsequently pro-
moted, and the War Office Muster Roll for the 42nd Foot, 1877 – 1879 (The National Archives, WO 16/1730) records that he

was a Sergeant at the time of his death on 22 July 1878.
30 Muster Book and Pay List of 42nd Regiment of Foot (1 April – 30 September 1878). (The National Archives: WO 16/1730).

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