Page 44 - Who Was Sapper Brown

Some details and a photo of Sergeant McGaw are also recorded in David Harvey’s testament to the burial
places of recipients of the Victoria Cross, Monuments to Courage.31 Sergeant McGaw had earned his

Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be
awarded to British and Commonwealth forces, just 4 years previously, on 21 January 1874, during the

first Ashanti Expedition (in modern-day Ghana), being severely wounded in the process.32 His valour
inspired much verse, and a rousing ditty:

‘The Ashantees, when they saw the shanks of Jock McGaw,

They turned aboot an’ ran awa’.

The rain may rain, an’ the snaw may snaw,

The wind may blaw, an’ the cock may craw,

But ye canna frichten Jock McGaw,

He’s the stoutest man in the Forty Twa.’33

His Victoria Cross is on public display in the Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum in London.

The Further Life of the Cemetery

Sergeant Samuel McGaw and his young colleagues were to be the sole occupants of this cemetery

for some 30 years, as the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment were not replaced in Kyrenia, and the few

remaining British troops in Cyprus were garrisoned elsewhere. They remain the only burials of serving
military personnel in this cemetery.

By 1921 the local expatriate population had expanded to about 200 individuals, mainly retired military

or colonial staff, so the original military cemetery was taken over for civilian use. This site has now
become known as the Old British Cemetery, following the creation of a New British Cemetery in Kyrenia

in 1978.34

31 Harvey, David (1999), Monuments to Courage: Victoria Cross Headstones and Memorials. Vol.1, 1854–1916 (Publishers:
Kevin and Kay Patience)
32 Samuel McGaw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_McGaw

33 Linklater, Eric and Andro (1977), The Black Watch – the history of the Royal’ Highland Regiment. p. 124.
34 Betts, Dorothyann. Op cit, pp. 8 – 11.

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