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Appendix B
Nick's Story
Lindsay had a Cypriot boyfriend who was drafted into the Greek Cypriot National Guard (GCNG) in February 1973. At beginning of June 1974, he was talking about looking forward to getting out of “the army” when he’d completed his 20 months National Service at the end of the month. I remember seeing him still in uniform at the start of July and asked him why he wasn’t out of the army yet and he looked a little sheepish as he told me that they all had to stay in service for a few more weeks. I don’t think he knew the real reason, but they must have been told not to talk about their extended service.
During the summer holidays, I was invited to go camping in the Troodos mountains with family friends Bill and Winnie Denton and their son David. We camped in the pine forest alongside Prodromos dam and Dave and I had a great time doing what a couple of 12 year old lads do, running round the woods, pretending to be cowboys, playing hide and seek, imagining we were miles from anywhere. Then Winnie would call us for lunch, echoing through the woods and we’d be back at the camp within moments to eat a fantastic picnic before running around playing again all afternoon.
After tea, we’d gather fire wood and pine cones to build a campfire, then listen to some of Bill’s funny stories while playing cards or board games. Bill’s stories were always true …. well some of them might have been exaggerated a bit, but they were always very amusing. When it got late, about 9pm, it was time to go to sleep so Dave and I retired to a small tent we shared. Winnie slept in their camper van which had a proper little bed and Bill, who was an ex-