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Cyprus (Nicosia) Memorial
The second, the , commemorates 58 Greek and Turkish Cypriots of the
Cyprus Regiment and the Cyprus Volunteers, who died between 1940 and 1947 and are now buried in

village cemeteries in various parts of the island. Some lie in family graves and others in collective graves,
where commemoration by the usual Commission headstone and permanent maintenance of the graves

is not possible. Some 600 members of the Cyprus Regiment and Cyprus Volunteers lost their lives on the
battlefields of Europe during the Second World War.

The Memorial takes the form of a pylon of local stone two metres high with two dwarf walls. The names

of those commemorated are carved on the memorial with an appropriate inscription. The first burial
recorded is Private Mahmoud Mehmet, Cyprus Regiment, who died on 3 August 1940. All the names

are also commemorated online on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website, as well as on
the Cyprus Veterans Association WWII website.
4

The Cyprus (Nicosia) Memorial to the Cyprus Regiment and the Cyprus Volunteer Force. Note the bullet holes near

the inscription of Captain Vias Michael Skoufarides RAMC, on the lower left, the result of fighting in 1974

The third is the Nicosia Cremation Memorial. This honours 73 soldiers of pre-partition India,5 whose
remains were accorded the last rites required by their religion – committal to fire. The memorial takes the

form of a stone pylon, winged and surmounted by an urn. On the memorial are engraved the names of those
whom it honours and a suitable inscription in English, Hindu and Gurmukhi. The first cremation recorded

is that of Water Carrier Parshad Chandi, Indian Army Ordnance Corps, who died on 5 January 1942, age

19. All the names are also commemorated online on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

4 Cyprus Veterans Association WWII website www.cyprusveterans.com.cy/list-passed-away.php
5 From the end of 1941 through to the end of the war the majority of the garrison strength in Cyprus was Indian (mainly

Hindus and Muslims) – hence the cremation memorial and Indian Army graves at Nicosia War Cemetery (information kindly
supplied by Tim Reardon, historian).

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