By
David Carter
In October 2006, relatives and veterans of the Gordon Highlanders visisted Waynes keep to pay their respect. You can read an account of their visit here.
WAYNE'S KEEP Military Cemetery in Nicosia is where many of those who died on active service during the Cyprus Emergency are buried. The colonial authorities established it originally during World War II. Today the cemetery, two and half miles west of the divided capital on the Myrtou Road, lies in the United Nations Buffer Zone, which separates the Turkish and Greek Cypriot controlled sectors. To the north and west, it is overlooked by the Turkish Army, to the south by the Greek National Guard and to the east by an UNFICYP Observation Post, manned by British soldiers wearing the Blue Beret. Volunteers of the British Contingent - BRITCON - work hard to maintain the cemetery as a respectable field of rest and not the wilderness they inherited in the early 1980s. Three locally employed gardeners assist them.
A shallow well in the cemetery provided adequate water in spring and autumn to keep the cemetery's grass and flowers alive, but in high summer it dried up and the gardeners had to rely on water brought in by military bowsers. Now the Water Board of south Nicosia has laid a mains system and the flowers bloom. There is an ongoing programme of refurbishment. Twice yearly representatives of the Eastern Mediterranean War Graves Commission check on the cemetery's upkeep. One of these annual visits coincides with the Remembrance Sunday service held there, which organised groups British expatriates in both North and south Cyprus usually attend.
Responsibility
OFFICIALLY THE War Graves Commission is responsible only for the commemoration of Commonwealth servicemen killed during the two World Wars, not for the graves of military personnel who died in the course of the EOKA conflict.
Vera Cook, the sister of EOKA victim Corporal Hale of the RAF, who is buried in Grave 12, Row B, Plot 14, tried for several years to visit the cemetery without success. Miss J. A. Broome, the Commission's Director General in 1980, told her: "Unfortunately I am not able to help you... as the Commission is only responsible for the commemoration of members of the Commonwealth Forces who lost their lives during the two World Wars, namely 1914-1918 and 1939-1945." Eventually, by persevering, she achieved her objective by making contact with a UN officer after she went to Cyprus. |
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Visits
NEVERTHELESS a UN spokesman insists: "There is good contact between the British High Commission, Commonwealth Graves Commission and the United Nations in Nicosia to ensure those who wish to visit are helped in every possible way. Because of the cemetery's highly sensitive location, these visits can only be arranged with the co-operation and approval of the United Nations Force in Cyprus." The UN says: "Visits are permitted between 09.00 and 12.00, Mondays to Fridays, and applications must be made by telephone or in writing, giving at least five working days notice."
Letters from the UK should be addressed to the
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HQ Britcon UNFICYP BFPO 567 The telephone number is: 00357 99419627 or 00357 22614648. Alternatively contact Mr Mike Wright at the British High Commission in Nicosia. He can be reached 00 357 22 861100 (BHC switchboard) or 00 357 22 861 313 (direct). He will approach UNFICYP and arrange your visit. Mike Wright's e-mail address is: Mike.Wright@fco.gov.uk |
Photographs can be taken only by the visitor's UN escort.
Memorials
THERE ARE 582 graves and three memorials in the cemetery. The Cross of Sacrifice, common to all Commonwealth war cemeteries around the world, commemorates those soldiers from the British Empire who gave their lives in WW II. The second, the Cyprus Memorial, commemorates the officers and men of the Cyprus Regiment and the Cyprus Volunteer Force who were laid to rest elsewhere and could not be transferred.
For Britons on holiday in the internationally recognised (Greek) Republic of Cyprus, who want to visit the cemetery, there are fewer difficulties than those in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. The Greek side considers anybody who arrives in the island through a Turkish Cypriot point of entry in the north as an 'illegal' and, if they step on Greek territory, could be subject to arrest.
Difficulties
TO ENTER Wayne's Keep Cemetery directly from the north is almost impossible, as the visitor must pass through a Turkish military-controlled zone. In 1990, while on holiday in northern Cyprus, Major General R M Somerville, CB, OBE, and his wife, Jean, took up the challenge and succeeded, but not without difficulty. If they tried today, they would face similar problems.
"Jean, was determined to visit the cemetery in Nicosia, because Mrs. Cutliffe is buried there - murdered by EOKA in Hermes Street, Famagusta, on Friday, 3 October 1958," the General recalls. During the EOKA period, he had been the commander of 145 (Maiwand) Battery, 29th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, in which Mrs. Cutliffe's husband served.
"Jean was one of our few Battery wives in those National Service days. Heavily escorted, she had been at the funeral," says the General. "The wives of both the Governor and the GOC were there too, as this was a monstrous killing, internationally condemned. I was absent - still heavily involved with the aftermath of the outrage."
Before General Somerville left the UK for north Cyprus, he was told a UN permit was required and five days' notice. If granted he and his wife would be given a UN escort and only discreet photography would be allowed.
"A letter to the British Contingent in UNFICYP resulted in a phone call to the Dome Hotel, Kyrenia, from the Chief of Staff - Major Gillies, Royal Scots - at 8.30am on the morning after we had arrived in the small hours. Yes, a visit could be arranged, but we would have to phone a Turkish Cyprus official in Nicosia to acquire a permit to cross into the BZ." Somerville says.
"A UN staff car would meet us at Bravo 47, where we were to cross from north Cyprus to the UN-controlled 'Buffer Zone."
They agreed a time and date, but the number given General Somerville by Major Gillies proved incorrect. Nevertheless, they tracked down the appropriate official who wanted detailed personal information, which was 'laboriously spelt out, over the phone.'
The days passed and nothing happened. When the day agreed with UNFICYP arrived, the General made an early morning call to the Turkish Cypriot bureaucrat.
"Not a problem," the Turkish Cypriot official declared. "The permit has not yet arrived, but come to my office at 10 o'clock at the Ledra Palace checkpoint which everyone knows."
"But not for long," the General explains. "A roadblock manned by an armed sentry lay ahead. We were in the Turkish military controlled zone. The sentry showed no inclination to budge. Despite the permit, the policeman took an age cajoling on the phone in the sentry box before we were allowed passage. But only to bump into another roadblock where the whole dreary process was repeated."
Eventually they were allowed to continue, but only with the addition of a Turkish army corporal in the front seat. The policeman squeezed into the back with Jean. By this time, it was long after 11 o'clock, the time they were expected at Bravo 47.
"Ahead was yet another roadblock where, much to our dismay, our policeman alighted, clutching the precious permit. We then continued, still with the Turkish corporal with whom it was impossible to communicate. What a relief it was when we approached an unmanned post - Bravo 47 indeed - and saw a staff car and two unmistakable British soldiers wearing UN berets. At last we could relax in the confident, safe and sure hands of the British Army. Had we arrived a few minutes later, Staff Sergeant Asquith and Corporal Cairns would have given up hope and returned to base."
Leaving the Turkish corporal to be picked up on their return, a short drive brought them to the Cemetery, where Jean laid her tribute of flowers on the grave as she had last done 32 years ago.
"Alas, we had to refuse UNFICYP hospitality as we had over-run the time given on our permit - assuming the Turkish soldiers could read - and we still had to survive unscathed the reverse journey with the same dramas with escorts and roadblocks," the General says.
He continues: "An emotional mission was accomplished, but what a hassle. The elusive permit was a Turkish imposition merely to allow passage through a Turkish military controlled zone into a UN-controlled area. It is a sad world when an ally imposes such constraints on access to a British Military Cemetery."
Easier visit
SIX YEARS later, in 1996, Paddy Buckley and Reg Williams of the North Staffs Branch of the Royal Artillery Association were on holiday in north Cyprus, eager to explore again the areas where they had served between 1957 and 1960, and, if possible, get to Wayne's Keep Cemetery, although they had not been any arrangements in advance.
"We were not sure of the exact location of the cemetery, but a chance meeting with Colonel Nick Parker, who was serving with UNFICYP, enlightened us to its whereabouts in the Buffer Zone," says Paddy Buckley. "Colonel Parker asked us to telephone him on the following Monday morning and said he would try to get us through the BZ."
"After some nightmare telecommunication problems, we fixed a time to meet a Sergeant Major Mills at the Ledra Palace checkpoint at 11am on Thursday morning, where, to our delight, two UN soldiers strode across the BZ between the two halves of Nicosia. They introduced themselves as WO2 (BSM) Paul Mills of 12 (Minden), 12 Regiment, on peacekeeping duties with the UN, and WO2 (BSM) Mark Gamble-Thompson of 132 Bty (The Bengal Rocket Troop), 39 Regiment, which is affiliated to our branch."
Memories
Smith also took photographs of other RMP's graves, including those of Lance Corporals Brian Turvey and Bill Cameron, who were killed in Famagusta on 4 May 1958. Lance Corporal Turvey was due to return home later in the week and had that day swapped duties with another RMP.
"I was on duty that day with Corporal 'Lofty' Phillips, when we were required to escort their bodies to the mortuary at the British Military Hospital in Nicosia," Smith remembers. "It was a grim experience never to be forgotten. There was a poignant moment as they lay there. In the silence of the mortuary we could hear the wrist watch of one of them still ticking."
THEY SHALL GROW NOT OLD AS WE ARE LEFT TO GROW OLD,
AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN,
AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING,
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.
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