Cyprus Memories late 1950s and Suffolk Regiment Reunion

 By Margaret Sheard ….

The very first article I wrote some five years ago about the memories of a British national serviceman who served time in Cyprus 1958/59, has been read continuously during that time and has received many comments, some of which we have been able to follow up and record more memories of other servicemen and their Regiments.   To read the original article click here

We still find people are making comments on various articles where they are trying to locate someone from the past or people who perhaps knew their father/relative all those years ago, and following are some recent comments which we hope may result in contact being made.

John Hill, now residing in Texas, USA

I must say I thoroughly enjoy reading and seeing the photos of life in the RMP.

My father, Major Frank Hill, was stationed with 227 Pro. during our stay in Cyprus.  I was with my mother and a family friend for this time and had what I thought was a great time, but hell I was only six years old then.  I do have an aerial photo of the camp where my father was stationed and we lived within a hundred yards of the camp in a house.  Still have some family and RMP photos of those times if anyone is interested.  We returned to Woking in Surrey in 1959.

Paul Hopkin

Does anyone know of a George Noel Hopkin, from Hull.  I think he was in transport.  He was my dad and I am trying to find out about him.  He died in 2012.

Richard Joyce – ex 1Para

We arrived on a Shackleton sub hunter in June 1958, which stopped at Luqa as well and continued the next day, we laid on the floor on our u/s blankets (the draught was whistling up through the gaps).   We took off from Abingdon I think and the pilot was extremely concerned about the weight carried and told us exactly where to sit and not to move around (just one person at a time to walk back to the “Epson”).

Louise Clews

Very interesting reading all about that time in Cyprus.  My Father was a civil engineer working over there at this time. I would like to get in touch with Terry Cottrell (I think he was in the army).  He was a driver to get my father from Limassol to his place of work.  I was only a child and cannot remember where this was.  Would you be able to help?

Patricia Mayall

My husband, Neville Mayall, was in Cyprus at this time.

Mavis Vines

I too had an uncle in Cyprus, unfortunately he passed away after having a massive heart attack. Would love to get some information about him, as there is no one left in my family to tell me anything. His name was Leslie Vines and he came from Goole in Yorkshire. I know it is a long shot, but you never know. I would appreciate the link to this wonderful article I have been reading in lots of emails. Thank you, in anticipation Mavis Vines

Further comment from Mavis Vines –

I find it so sad to read of any campaign that has been forgotten, Because of the nature of the beast, it is mostly our young strong adults thrown into wars. My heart bleeds for every one of them and their families.  I too, lost a family member, murdered by the IRA, and his era of young soldiers being sent to Northern Ireland are now being prosecuted for doing their duty. Where is the sense in all this??

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Having had a lot of contact with veterans of the Suffolk Regiment who served in Cyprus, we are always interested to hear about their annual reunions and have just received information from Derek Chilvers that there will be a Winter Reunion at the end of October.    This is the message Derek has sent to his old service days pals and we hope they will have a great get-together, reminiscing about those far off days of their younger years when they were together in Cyprus.

Hello everybody,

I have been in touch with the Rushbrooke Arms and booked their upstairs room for Sunday October 28th and I hope to see most of you there. I appreciate that some of you are unable to attend but you will be in our thoughts on the day.

I hope you are all in good spirits at the moment and staying as healthy as can be expected at our age and carry that feeling with you when we meet up again. It would be nice to see Taff and Mark among us to join in the fun.

I wish you enough.

Derek