On 5 July 1878 the administration of the island was officially transferred to Great Britain. The Union Jack was raised in the presence of Vice-

Admiral, Lord John Gray, Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron that had been dispatched from Crete to Cyprus. Nicosia was initially occupied by 50 Marines and 50 Bluejackets from his flagship,

The Minotaur. On 31 July 1878, Lt. General Sir Garnet Wolseley, the first High Commissioner, arrived in Nicosia He immediately established a skeletal administration by sending officers to each district to supervise the administration of justice and obtain all possible information about the area.

Wolseley immediately established a Post Office at his camp at Kykko Metochi monastery outside Nicosia. Wolseley lived at ‘Monastery Camp' until a prefabricated residence had been built for him near Strovolos on the site of today's Presidential Palace.