REMEMBRANCE DAY: Paying tribute to Cyprus WWII veterans

British High Commissioner Ric Todd and Defence Advisor Colonel Seb Pollington visited WWII Cyprus Regiment veteran Loizos Demetriou in his Strovolos apartment as part of the UK activities in view of Remembrance Sunday this weekend.

The diplomatic mission has also been paying tribute to the scores of other Cypriots who made such great sacrifices during the war, with a number of them hosted at several events around the island, including the Sovereign Base Areas.
“Those were the days”, said the 93-year-old Demetriou remembering his days serving in the Cyprus Regiment during the Second World War.
He is one of the ever reducing number of Cypriot veterans who made such a valued contribution to the Allied efforts and to whom we all owe a great debt, the High Commission said on its Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ukincyprus?fref=ts
Demetriou’s wartime service took him to Egypt, Palestine, Iraq and to Britain where, selected from among his peers for officer training, he was stationed in North Wales. Evidently proud of his service, he reflected upon the virtues of military service; and he lacked none of the youthful sharpness which his books (including the latest published in 2014) conveyed about his experiences.
The Cyprus Regiment was formed by the British Government during the Second World War as part of the British Army structure. It was mostly made up of volunteers from Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but also included other Commonwealth nationalities.
About 30,000 Cypriots served in the Cyprus Regiment that was involved in action from the very start and served in the Battle of France, in the Greek Campaign, North Africa, France, the Middle East and Italy.
In the post-war years the regiment served in Cyprus and the Middle East, including Palestine during the 1945-1948 period and was eventually disbanded on 31 March 1950.