Page 7 - The Princess Mary's Hospital 40pp book.pdf

Suez Crisis
The scale of the EOKA conflict and its impact on the medical services in
the RAF and Army hospitals during the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–1959 are perhaps better appreciated when one realises that during the Suez operation of 1956, more British troops died at the hands of EOKA in Cyprus than in fighting Nasser’s troops. There were 23 deaths
in Cyprus in November 1956 alone, one more than the total number of fatalities during the Suez operation.
It was not just British servicemen who were cared for at the RAF hospital:
(January 1957) “Two EOKA terrorists were admitted
on 18 January 1957. One had gunshot wounds of the chest and the other gunshot wounds of the left arm. The former was discharged on 28 January, 1957 and the latter remains in hospital.”
Military medicine is not all surgery...
Clinical work at this hospital was not all trauma:
Maternity:
(February 1959) “The Maternity Department completed
its first year in operation on 23 February 1959, and
during this period there were 255 births, including 13 by
Caesarean Section. There were no maternal deaths, but
five still births and four neonatal deaths. The Department
was equipped with eight beds from the time of opening until 30 October 1958, then with 10 from 1–24 November, and thereafter with 14 beds.”
Cessation of hostilities
The EOKA campaign came to an end in 1959, after combined action by the Greek and Turkish Governments to avert disaster by agreeing to jettison both Enosis and Taksim in favour of promoting independence for Cyprus, and after four years in which EOKA fighters had killed more of their fellow
Greek-Cypriots than British and Turkish-Cypriots combined.
Independence
On 15 August 1960, Cyprus became independent, with the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, simultaneously with the establishment of two British Sovereign Base areas (encompassing a total area of 99 square miles) at Akrotiri and Dhekelia (each with their own military hospital) as well as a small number of ‘retained areas’ elsewhere.
Increased hospital requirements
(December 1960) “With the advent of Christmas, the wards were gradually emptied until on Christmas Day there were only 50 patients in hospital...”
It was soon realised that the original hospital was not adequate to meet the needs of the growing base, which, by 1961, was well on its way to becoming the largest operational station of the RAF. The decision was made to construct a new purpose-built hospital at Cape Zevgari, a safe distance of approximately three miles from the airfield. This was the height of the Cold War and, with Egypt
leaning towards the Soviet bloc, the threat to Akrotiri of surprise air attack from the Soviet ‘volunteer’ bomber force in Egypt was all too real.
Nurses at The Royal Air Force (Temporary) Hospital, Akrotiri, late 1950s
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