Page 74 - Who Was Sapper Brown

The Stories Behind the Burials

Typhoid Most of those interred here died of typhoid fever, known as enteric fever in those days:

‘According to various letters in our file,13 many of those interred died of enteric fever.’14

Numbers The following figures include dependants as well as servicemen. There are eight burials

recorded from 1879 alone (the first year of the Troodos summer encampment). Thereafter there are
far fewer deaths each year due to the reduction in size of the garrison. There are 22 burials from the

1880s (including 16 who died after being evacuated from the Sudan campaign of 1884 – 1886), 16 from
the 1890s, five from the early 20century before 1914, three during the First World War, four from the
th
interwar years, three from the Second World War, and four thereafter up to the last burial on 4 June 1951,

that of Reverend J C Black, a retired missionary.

Roll call of regiments The military headstones also sound a roll call of most of the regiments or logistic
units that served in Cyprus in the 19th century (and that had decamped from Polemidia to Troodos for

the summer): 31st Company Royal Engineers (1879), 20th Regiment of Foot (1879),15 Transport Corps
(1883, 1884), 3rd Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps (1884), Royal Sussex Regiment (1884), Medical Staff

Corps (1885), 1st Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment) (known as 1 PWO Yorks) (1888,
unknown), Army Service Corps (1894), 2nd Battalion, Connaught Rangers (1894, 1895), and the 1st

Battalion, The Border Regiment (1898).

Sudan Campaign 16 of the headstones recall some of the regiments that took part in the Sudan campaign

of 1884 – 1886:

2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment (1884), Scots Guards (1885), Coldstream Guards (1885), Grenadier
Guards (1885), King’s Shropshire Light Infantry (1885), 2nd Battalion, 20th Hussars (1886), 1st Battalion,

Dorset Regiment (1886).

Most if not all of the soldiers from these regiments had been evacuated to Cyprus and died in the Troodos
Station Hospital (then known as the Guards Base Hospital) from the effects of typhoid fever contracted

in Sudan:

‘The ten graves in question (of Scots Guards, Coldstream Guards and Grenadier Guards) contain the remains
of one Warrant Officer, one non-commissioned officer and eight privates who up to the time of death were

serving with the Guards Brigade engaged in the Egyptian War of 1882 – 1885.

13 The most relevant letter is that from Major A P F Napier, Adjutant, the Records Office Coldstream Guards, on 28 April
1970, part of which is quoted verbatim in this chapter. The letter goes on to state that disease took a heavy toll of the British
troops during this Campaign, mainly due to contaminated water and food supplies. From the onset of the Egyptian campaign,

Cyprus had been used as the main concentration area for troops brought in from the United Kingdom, Malta and Gibraltar.
Mount Troodos was the area allotted to the Guards Brigade which consisted of the Grenadier, Coldstream and Scots Guards,
and which served as the main base to the Brigade for the entire operation. The Guards Brigade Camp at Mount Troodos was
broken up on 24 August 1885 with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards sailing for Spithead in the troopship HMS Orontes,

and the 3rd Battalion Grenadiers along with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards leaving in the troopship HMS Poonah.
14 Commandant Troodos Leave Centre, dated 28 April 1970. The date after the regiment’s name refers to the date of burial
of one or more members of each regiment.

15 Troodos Garrison Files: Letter from Major A P F Napier, Regimental Adjutant, Coldstream Guards, to Captain W A
Barnes,

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