Page 72 - Who Was Sapper Brown
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The First Burial
13707 Sapper George Wood, Royal Engineers, was the first to be buried here, on 27 May 1879, the
day after he died.8 He was a sapper in the 31st Fortress Company RE, involved in building the road up
to Troodos camp. A modern marble plaque and plot marker (Number 1) marks his pine-strewn grave.9
The first two burials – Sapper
George Wood (died 26 May 1879),
and Driver William Mencey (died
26 June 1879)
8 War Office Muster Roll, 31 Company, Royal Engineers 1879 – 1880. This gives Sapper Wood’s full name, and records his date
of death as 26 May 1879. (The National Archives: WO 16/905)
9 Many of the early headstones in this exposed cemetery suffered severe erosion, and in recent years have been replaced
with modern marble plaques, and given numbered marble markers, by Phideas, a local stonemason and gardener employed by
British Forces Cyprus.
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