Serving the empire in the Great War: The Cypriot mule corps, imperial loyalty and silenced memory

269 Pages·2017·6.023 MB·English

by  Andrekos Varnava

General editor: Andrew S. Thompson
Founding editor: John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded more
than twenty-five years ago, emphasis was laid upon the
conviction that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon
had as significant an effect on the dominant as on the
subordinate societies’. With well over a hundred titles now
published, this remains the prime concern of the series.
Cross-disciplinary work has indeed appeared covering the
full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as examining
aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and
the environment, language and literature, migration and
patriotic societies, and much else. Moreover, the series has
always wished to present comparative work on European
and American imperialism, and particularly welcomes the
submission of books in these areas. The fascination with
imperialism, in all its aspects, shows no sign of abating,
and this series will continue to lead the way in encouraging
the widest possible range of studies in the field. ‘Studies
in Imperialism’ is fully organic in its development, always
seeking to be at the cutting edge, responding to the latest
interests of scholars and the needs of this ever-expanding
area of scholarship.
Serving the empire in the
Great War
SELECTED TITLES AVAILABLE IN THE SERIES
IMPERIAL EXPECTATIONS AND REALITIES
El Dorados, utopias and dystopias
ed. Andrekos Varnava
BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN CYPRUS, 1878–1915
The inconsequential possession
Andrekos Varnava
BEASTLY ENCOUNTERS OF THE RAJ
Livelihoods, livestock and veterinary health in North India, 1790–1920
Saurabh Mishra
ENGINES FOR EMPIRE
The Victorian army and its use of railways
Edward Spiers
THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH WORLD
ed. Barry Crosbie and Mark Hampton
Serving the empire
in the Great War
the cypriot mule corps, imperial
loyalty and silenced memory
Andrekos Varnava
MANCHESTER
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © Andrekos Varnava 2017
The right of Andrekos Varnava to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
ALTRINCHAM STREET, MANCHESTER M1 7JA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 1 5261 0367 3 hardback
First published 2017
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset by
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I dedicate this book to all those Cypriots who served in the Cypriot
Mule Corps in the British army during and after the Great War, but
especially to family members: my great grandfather on my father’s
side, Varnavas Michael Varnava, from Frenaros, Famagusta, who
enlisted on 28 September 1916 and served until 24 September
1917 with the number 5048; my wife Helen’s grandfather on her
father’s side, Nicholas Zacharias Komodromou, who enlisted on 3
November 1917 and served until 20 January 1919 with the number
8938 and his brother Leondis Zacharias Komodromou, who, with
the numbers 3622 and 12287, served twice, first from 14 August 1916
to 24 September 1917, and then from 15 July 1918 to 28 May 1919,
from Rizokarpaso, Famagusta. This book attempts to put forward
their story within the wider social, economic, imperial, colonial
and military contexts without fear and without prejudice. It also
attempts to understand the political and cultural circumstances
that have caused their story to be silenced from Cypriot national
consciousness. I hope that I have done justice to their story.

CONTENTS
List of illustrations—page viii
List of tables—ix
Acknowledgements—xi
Abbreviations—xiii
Introduction 1
1 Historiography and theories 9
2 British Cyprus, 1878–1918: from backwater to bustling war
base 31
3 The formation of the Cypriot Mule Corps 58
4 Mule and muleteer recruitment: pushed or pulled? 77
5 Contracts, challenges, hardships and the ‘liminal space’ 107
6 Conditions for mules and muleteers 130
7 Muleteer behaviour during service 161
8 Veterans and their families after service 180
9 Remembering and forgetting the Cypriot Mule Corps 210
Conclusion 227
Select bibliography—231
Index—246
The appendices referred to in the book can be accessed at
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/serving-the-empire-
in-the-great-war-appendix/
[ vii ]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
0.1 ‘Travoys Arriving with Wounded at a Dressing Station
at Smol, Macedonia, September 1916’, Sir Stanley
Spencer page xvi
1.1 Map of the Eastern Mediterranean. 22
1.2 Map of Cyprus. 23
3.1 ‘Fed No Complaints’. Courtesy of the Office of the
Secretary of the Board of Governors, Nicosia English
School. 59
3.2 Cypriot muleteers 1917, Photo I. Courtesy of the Office of
the Secretary of the Board of Governors, Nicosia English
School. 72
3.3 Cypriot muleteers 1917, Photo II. Courtesy of the Office of
the Secretary of the Board of Governors, Nicosia English
School. 73
4.1 Muleteers enlisting, with Canon Newman and Zaptiehs.
Courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of the Board of
Governors, Nicosia English School. 77
5.1 ‘Mule-Panniers for the Transport of Wounded: Two
Wounded Serbians Brought Down from the Mountains’,
Illustrated London News, 1916. 108
5.2 ‘Light Railways Used for Bringing In Wounded: Two
Stretcher-Cases on a Horse-Drawn Truck’, Illustrated
London News, 1916. 110
5.3 ‘Light Railways Built for Supply Transport: Truck-Loads
of Provision Drawn by Mules Going Up to the Front’,
Illustrated London News, 1917. 111
5.4 ‘The Sleigh as a Transport Vehicle for Crossing Deep Mud:
An Improvised Method of Carrying Timber’, Illustrated
London News, 1917. 113
5.5 ‘The Mule as Locomotive on a Light Railway: Giving the
Animals a Push-Off with Their Ten-Ton Load’, Illustrated
London News, 1917. 114
5.6 ‘With the Greek Soldiers in Macedonia: Muleteers’,
Illustrated London News, 1917. 116
7.1 Photograph of British War Medal I, Macedonian Mule
Corps, Eraklis Theodorou. 162
7.2 Photograph of British War Medal II, Macedonian Mule
Corps. 163
[ viii ]
LIST OF TABLES
2.1 Cypriot revenue, 1909–25 page 48
3.1 Distribution of Macedonian and Cypriot muleteers,
7 August 1916 63
3.2 Cypriot muleteers across various British units, 4 May 1918 64
3.3 Exports of mules and donkeys, 1905 to 1916 69
3.4 Number of muleteers across districts in Cyprus in 1901
and 1911 censuses 69
4.1 Mules purchased by 31 August 1916 81
4.2 Transport animal exports 82
4.3 Enlistment numbers until March 1919 84
4.4 Religious/ethnic distribution of the Cypriot Mule Corps 86
4.5 Religious/ethnic distribution of population, 1911 87
4.6 Enlistment numbers and percentages across Cyprus 88
4.7 Distribution of population in urban centres, 1911 88
4.8 Urban–rural spread in Cypriot Mule Corps 88
4.9 Ethno-religious composition of foremen 90
4.10 Urban–rural composition of Cypriot foremen 90
4.11 Ethno-religious composition of interpreters 91
4.12 Urban–rural composition of Cypriot interpreters 91
4.13 Next of kin results for Cypriot Mule Corps members 93
4.14 Next of kin breakdown of married men 94
4.15 Civil status of men, 1911 Census 94
4.16 Literacy in Cyprus, 1911 Census 100
6.1 Reason for discharging muleteers on HMS Verbera,
11 March 1917 141
6.2 Ethno-religious composition of discharged muleteers 141
6.3 Urban–rural composition of those discharged 142
6.4 Next of kin results for repatriated muleteers suffering
venereal disease 142
6.5 Reasons for discharge of muleteers on HMS Umballa,
13 July 1917 143
6.6 Numbers with venereal disease from 31 October 1917 to
1 March 1918 149
6.7 Religious breakdown of those who died 154
6.8 Urban–rural spread of Cypriots who died 154
6.9 Next of kin spread of dead 155
7.1 Demographic distribution of desertion 165
7.2 Urban–rural composition of Cypriot deserters 165
[ ix ]