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[turkkan]

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The forgotten soldiers buried in no man's land
Fify years ago, terrorists on Cyprus killed nearly 400 British soldiers. Now, with the help of Telegraph readers, they are at last to get a fitting memorial, reports Gordon Rayner.


Gordon Rayner
Last Updated: 7:54PM BST 20 Apr 2009

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British soldier on guard - The forgotten soldiers buried in no man's land
British soldier standing behind barricade during fighting between Turkish and Greek Cypriots Photo: GETTY IMAGES

In an all but forgotten graveyard in the UN-patrolled no man's land which divides Cyprus, a small group of ageing British veterans will gather today to remember 371 servicemen whose sacrifice remains unrecognised 50 years after they fell.

Wayne's Keep Military Cemetery, near Nicosia, is the last resting place of the soldiers, sailors and airmen murdered by Greek-Cypriot terrorists during four years of bloodshed which ended in April 1959. The vast majority of those killed were young men carrying out National Service, some of the last British conscripts to lose their lives in service of their country.

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Yet to date, no memorial has been built to honour them, and with Wayne's Keep virtually inaccessible to the general public, their families and comrades feel a deep frustration at being unable to pay their respects.

This year, with the help of Telegraph readers, they intend to right that wrong by raising £200,000 for a permanent memorial on Cyprus, which will bear the names of every man who died at the hands of the Greek Cypriot guerrilla organisation EOKA.

"These are Brits on foreign soil and we need the opportunity to remember them," said Lt Gen Sir Henry Beverley, who served in Cyprus with the Royal Marines and is now a patron of the British Cyprus Memorial Trust. "It has been 50 years since they died and if we don't do something now the opportunity will be lost. The memorial will show they have not been forgotten."

Today's commemoration service, marking the 50th anniversary of the end of hostilities, will be one of the only gatherings at Wayne's Keep since Cyprus was divided more than 30 years ago. A cruel quirk of geography means that the cemetery, which also includes Second World War graves, lies in the narrow buffer zone, enforced by the United Nations, which divides the Greek Cypriots in the south and the Turkish Cypriots in the north.

Wreaths will be laid by representatives of the British High Commission, which has given its support to the memorial campaign, and of the Army, which lost 274 men, the Royal Air Force, which lost 69, and of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, which lost 28 between them.

The veterans hope that by the time of their next visit on Remembrance Sunday this year a memorial will be in place. "It would mean so much to the families of those men who died if they finally received the recognition they deserve," said Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon, a former Chief of the Air Staff who served in Cyprus in the early Sixties and is one of the patrons of the appeal.

"There is a feeling that the memory of these men is already fading into history, because when people think of Cyprus they think of its turbulent political history in recent times, but they forget that British servicemen died in large numbers beforehand.

"The political situation is still very sensitive, we realise that, but our aim is to remove this from politics. It is simply about commemorating lives lost."

The Cyprus Emergency, as it was then known, consisted of a series of murderous attacks on servicemen in what was then a British colony by members of EOKA (the Greek acronym for National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), starting in April 1955.

General Sir John Waters, who served in Cyprus with the Gloucestershire Regiment and later Commander in Chief, UK Land Forces, said: "Fundamentally, it was similar to Northern Ireland, because the tactics they were using included sniper attacks, roadside bombs and barbed wire strung across roads at neck height. I was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, together with another officer and four soldiers, but we were extremely lucky as none of us were killed."

The deaths of Cornet Charles Stephen Fox-Strangways, of the Royal Horse Guards, and Trooper John Proctor on July 8, 1958, summed up the brutality of EOKA; they were off duty and collecting groceries from a shop in Famagusta when gunmen entered and repeatedly shot both men in the back. They were both just 20 years old.

It was a precursor to regular street ambushes in cities such as Nicosia, where the central avenue became known as the murder mile because of the number of lives claimed by assassins.

Sir Henry Beverley said: "It got worse and worse as time went on. There was rioting going on almost round the clock and it was our job to try to stop it. Just before Christmas in 1955, I was on duty during a riot when my troop sergeant, John Routledge, was hit by a home-made grenade lobbed from the crowd. He lived for a few hours but very sadly he died."

The terrorist attacks finally stopped in April 1959, a year before the island was granted independence after an agreement between the UK, Greece and Turkey. Fighting between the Greeks and Turks in 1974 led to the division which still exists.

The campaign to build a memorial to the British dead has, inevitably, encountered stumbling blocks because of the island's turbulent recent history and the antipathy towards the British which still exists in some quarters. The Greek Cypriots turned down a request for the memorial to be sited on their part of the island, and because of the difficulty of accessing Wayne's Keep, it is impractical to site it there either.

So the campaign's trustees – who have raised £50,000 – have reached an agreement with the Turkish Cypriots that it will be in Kyrenia, on the north coast, in another British cemetery holding the graves of the Victorian soldiers who originally took Cyprus in 1878. Meanwhile, a hand-inscribed memorial book, containing the names and details of the dead, will be placed in the old British garrison church near Wayne's Keep.

Sir Michael Graydon said: "Our hope is that if there is a settlement in Cyprus which reunifies the island, the memorial will eventually find a permanent home at Wayne's Keep. With that in mind, it has been specifically designed to be movable, made in sections of granite."

Among those intending to make their first pilgrimage to Cyprus once the memorial is in place is Ian Wilson, who was just four when his father, Surgeon-Captain Gordon Wilson, aged 29, was killed in an ambush on his car as he drove to give medical aid to villagers in his spare time in September 1956.

"People know about Iraq and Afghanistan and they know about the world wars, but Cyprus isn't particularly well known," he said. "For those left behind it's important to know that what happened there is recognised and valued."

* To donate to the appeal, make cheques payable to British Cyprus Memorial Trust and send your donation to British Cyprus Memorial Trust, 26, York Street, London W1U 6PZ or visit www.britishcyprusmemorial.org

[Raymanoff]

because Russia is not my home...do your homework before answering you miserable prick. I am sick to watch your signature, tasteless and disgusting.... its taking too much space, Admin should remove it.

[turkkan]

I am sick to watch your signature, tasteless and disgusting.... its taking too much space, Admin should remove it.

Whereas you calling turks 'worse than gypsies' is not tasteless or disgusting is it?

The sig is anything but tasteless, its a baby from the blacksea, and it symbolises how close those people are with the local fish hamsi in which they use for nearly everything.

[Raymanoff]

This proves again that your nation is a bunch of undeveloped degenerates...

[Raymanoff]

Dude, u seriously not paying attention... 1. I am Cypriot. 2. I don't have a Daughter 3. I don't drink Vodka. 4. Russia is not my nation...

This is Cyprus forum with a very bad moderation, if I'd be an admin i would ban you your IP by location so i don't have to see a bunch of tasteless and worthless discussions every day. Your nation of thieves and bloody murderers haven't changed a bit in centuries. I dont see a point in proving you anything nor having any kind of discussion with you. Piratis, GetReal and Oracle are having way too much free time on their hands... i respect their intelligence but i totally disagree on their lecturing tactics which already passed a 10.000 posts mark each...

Honestly i have a couple of Turkish & TC friends in UK with totally different mentality, but you guys here are a bunch of well selected loosers...

[turkkan]

if I'd be an admin i would ban you your IP by location so i don't have to see a bunch of tasteless and worthless discussions every day

Ofcourse you would - you would love a forum where only like minded rats like you can hang around. If you dont see how ridiculous it is for you to insult a whole nation constantly and not expect to be banned but a turkish cypriot should be banned becauase he posts a anti-eoka article then your obviously a dimwit.