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Turkish Invasion of Cyprus 1974


Memories of the 1974 Turkish Invasion of Greek occupied Cyprus by Helen Wemyss who was a Ward Stewardess in the QARANC at British Military Hospital Dhekelia




Ward Stewardess As a ward stewardess I was posted to British Military Hospital Dhekelia on 26th January 1973. It was my second posting after being at the Cambridge Military Hospital for 11 months.

BMH Dhekelia was a very pleasant hospital to work in. Sunshine flooded in through the many windows. It was only about a 5 minute walk (or a 3 minute run if you were late) from our accommodation in Nightingale Barracks.

I had the opportunity to spend time working on all of the wards in the hospital. My favourite was the children's' ward. As Sue Simmons recalls earlier on this page, it was a very busy ward. There was a weekly Thalassemia clinic when many local Cypriot children were brought in for treatment. It was sad watching them lie there in bed while they had their transfusions. Sometimes I went inside the ward's very large birdcage to clean it out. I actually hated going in there and I would make such a fuss as the birds flapped their wings around me but it made the children laugh so I didn't mind.

The social life for QA's in Dhekelia was second to none. There were opportunities to get involved in many sports, from tennis to parachuting. Being some of the very few females in Dhekelia, invitations to parties came in often. Due to the heat we also worked shorter day shifts, starting at 7am and finishing at 1pm. That left us plenty of time to head to the beach. BMH Dhekelia is what many who were lucky enough to be posted there will recall it as a dream posting.






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PTSD assistance dog Lynne book


My PTSD assistance dog, Lynne, and I have written a book about how she helps me with my military Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, anxiety, and depression. I talk about my time in the QAs and the coping strategies I now use to be in my best health.

Along the way, I have had help from various military charities, such as Help for Heroes and The Not Forgotten Association and royalties from this book will go to them and other charities like Bravehound, who paired me with my four-legged best friend.

I talk openly about the death of my son by suicide and the help I got from psychotherapy and counselling and grief charities like The Compassionate Friends.

The author, Damien Lewis, said of Lynne:

"A powerful account of what one dog means to one man on his road to recovery. Both heart-warming and life-affirming. Bravo Chris and Lynne. Bravo Bravehound."

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QARANC Poppy Pin Badge Royal British Legion RBL
This beautiful QARANC Poppy Pin Badge is available from the Royal British Legion Poppy Shop.




For those searching military records, for information on a former nurse of the QAIMNS, QARANC, Royal Red Cross, VAD and other nursing organisations or other military Corps and Regiments, please try Genes Reunited where you can search for ancestors from military records, census, birth, marriages and death certificates as well as over 673 million family trees. At GenesReunited it is free to build your family tree online and is one of the quickest and easiest ways to discover your family history and accessing army service records.

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Another genealogy website which gives you access to military records and allows you to build a family tree is Find My Past which has a free trial.






In 1974 that dream was to be shattered when, in July 1974, Turkish forces invaded Cyprus. This occurred after a period of unrest when the Cypriot president Archbishop Makarios was deposed and replaced by Nikos Sampson during a military coup. The first I knew about it was when a colleague woke me up, soon after completing a nightshift, on the morning of the 20th July to tell me we all had to report to the hospital as Turkish Troops had just parachuted into Nicosia.

As many patients as possible who could be discharged were moved out and then there began an orderly scramble by staff to prepare the hospital for mass casualties. The families of British servicemen on the island were evacuated and medical support troops were flown in from various units with empty spaces within the hospital becoming makeshift sleeping quarters for the extra staff. Security around the hospital was extremely tight. We had soldiers on the roof of the hospital as it afforded a clear view of the surrounding areas. Suddenly every soldier we saw around the base was armed. Gone was the idea of different dining rooms for other ranks and officers. During this time we ate together, mostly army rations, and washed up together. All the army training we had been through came into force and we worked well as a team. We were all confined to being either at the hospital or in our accommodation blocks but morale was high. We had a bar in the basement of the hospital called the Fidelis Club. The bar became our main source of entertainment.

We didn't have to wait too long before casualties started arriving at the hospital. We looked after both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot casualties. Many of the casualties were also from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force who were trying to establish a buffer zone on the island.

It was challenging to try and look after so many non-English speaking patients. As I remember, many of the UN casualties were from Finland , Denmark, Sweden and Canada. Their injuries were mainly gunshot wounds. We had one young French Canadian patient with so many injuries we didn't think he was going to make it. For about three months we treated him in the intensive care unit while he remained in a coma. We used to carefully treat his wounds every day while discussing our social lives. The soldier eventually made a good enough recovery to be repatriated to Canada. It was about 6 months later that same soldier, having made a full recovery, came back to BMH Dhekelia to thank the staff for the excellent care he had received. He also informed us with a grin of the times he lay listening to our social life revelations!

During shifts at the hospital we would listen to bombs going off in the town of Larnaca, approximately 12 miles away. Soon tent "cities" started to appear as more and more civilians became displaced.

The Turkish invasion ended with the partition of Cyprus along the UN-monitored Green Line in Famagusta, which still divides Cyprus. The once busy and prosperous city remains empty with hotels, office buildings and homes left to rot and continue to be a no man's land.

During the conflict many thousands of people lost their lives, including many civilians. We heard much talk of atrocities being carried out by both sides. Although this was disturbing to hear, our job remained, as always, to help the sick that came our way, no matter what side they were from.

My tour of Cyprus came to an end in January 1975. By then things had settled down as politicians began to try and find a political solution to the conflict. When I finally left Cyprus I was using crutches. When things began to settle down on the island I managed to fit in my second parachute jump. Unfortunately it when wrong and I ended up with three broken leg bones...but that's another story! Helen Wemyss QARANC.



If you would like to contribute any info, photographs or share your memories then please contact me.





New post apocalyptic military survival thriller

Former Royal Air Force Regiment Gunner Jason Harper witnesses a foreign jet fly over his Aberdeenshire home. It is spilling a strange yellow smoke. Minutes later, his wife, Pippa, telephones him, shouting that she needs him. They then get cut off. He sets straight out, unprepared for the nightmare that unfolds during his journey. Everyone seems to want to kill him.

Along the way, he pairs up with fellow survivor Imogen. But she enjoys killing the living dead far too much. Will she kill Jason in her blood thirst? Or will she hinder his journey through this zombie filled dystopian landscape to find his pregnant wife?

The Fence is the first in this series of post-apocalyptic military survival thrillers from the torturous mind of former British army nurse, now horror and science fiction novel writer, C.G. Buswell.

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If you would like to contribute to this page, suggest changes or inclusions to this website or would like to send me a photograph then please e-mail me.








Free Book Operation wrath

Free Book.
The death of the Brotherhood will be avenged.
RAF gunner Jason Harper and a team of Special Air Service operators are enraged after the death of their brothers by a terrorist drone strike. They fly into south-eastern Yemen on a Black-op mission to gather intelligence and avenge the death of their comrades.
Can they infiltrate the Al-Queda insurgents' camp, stay undetected, and call down their own drone missile strike and get home safely?
Will they all survive to fight another day?
Operation Wrath is a free, fast-paced adventure prequel to the non-stop action The Fence series by military veteran author C.G. Buswell.
Download for free on any device and read today.





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