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Letter to the Editor
Letters to the Editor
Happy Cypriot Memories
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Dear Editor Thank you for your extensive coverage of the JMETS in Cyprus (December 2020). This brought back some very happy memories for me. My first posting to Cyprus was to 48 Command Workshop in Dhekelia as a newly commissioned Officer in 1966. There are several memorable aspects to this: I met my wife-to-be on my first day in Dhekelia; I had the job of harvesting cobwebs for the restoration of Kitchener’s theodolite for the Cyprus Museum; I spent at least a month attached to 103 Maintenance Unit (MU) in RAF Akrotiri, where Category 4 repairs were being conducted; I spent six weeks in Libya on overseas training with the Resident Infantry Battalions; and I learned to sail and ski. Apart from falling in love with the woman to whom I am happily married, I fell in love with Cyprus. There were areas of tension in 1966 but the Locally Employed Civilians (LEC) were from all parts of the Cypriot community. It is also worth noting that HQ Middle East Land Forces (MELF) was based in Cyprus at that time.
My second posting to Cyprus was from March 1975 to September 1977 as EME Tels and Adjutant CREME. By then it was HQ Near East Land Forces (NEARELF) based in Cyprus. There were two key aspects to this period: the Greek Cypriot Coup and Turkish invasion had only just happened in August 1974; and the Wilson Labour Government published a major Defence Review in 1974. In March 1975, RAF Akrotiri was the largest RAF Station in the world with Vulcan Bombers, Lightening Fighters and Bloodhound Missiles. 103 MU was a key unit for me as EME Tels because of its calibration facilities. It is worth noting that there was a two star General in what was RAF Episkopi/HQ NEARELF but there were also seventeen Group Captains.
As a result of the Defence Review, the Army’s role in the Near East was greatly reduced and, theoretically, RAF Akrotiri became more of a staging post than a major military establishment. I was told in April 1976 that calibration facilities would cease by October as 103 MU was greatly downgraded. This taxed me as EME Tels! Equally taxing was my job as Adjutant, as the establishments were being completely re-written. HQ NEARELF and RAF Episkopi became HQ British Forces Cyprus and Episkopi Garrison.
It was during this period that 48 Command Workshop moved from Dhekelia to Akrotiri with the associated changes in establishments. As Adjutant CREME I was heavily involved with this but, luckily, I had an excellent boss in Lt Col Gwynne Flower. WO1 Brian Lilly was the HQ REME ASM. We were also very lucky with the other branches in the HQ BFC. We shared a corridor with HQ RE and my Welbeck contemporaries will remember the Welbeck Adjutant, Captain MIF Tuck, who was subsequently Commander RE in Cyprus.
As you can imagine, there were many issues associated with the changeover from RAF Episkopi to Episkopi Garrison - not least in relation to the administration of quarters. The quarters situation was further complicated by the lack of hirings in Limassol thanks to the 1974 Coup. On a personal note, my wife left Jersey Lane to have our third child but came out of hospital to Anglesey Road in North Paramali. I had to move quarters while she was having the baby! Actually, it worked out well for we ‘inherited’ a lovely ‘batwoman’ called Aphrodite with whom we remained friends for years afterwards.
There is much more that I could write about this period: the sailing, the times in Troodos and Platres, and our one visit to the Turkish area. One important event worth noting, is that not long after we arrived in Cyprus in 1975, all the Turkish Cypriots from the South were moved, under UN direction, to the North. This was a traumatic event all round and the sight of old people sitting among their belongings on the back of trucks under escort was heartbreaking.
Yours sincerely,
Major (Retd) The Reverend John Jessop
JMETS
Sun, Sea and Spanners
