Special Cypriot ceremony remembers fallen Fifer

Mediterranean: St Andrews soldier was shot dead in his car

A St Andrews serviceman killed during the Cyprus Emergency in the 1950s has been remembered with honour by Scottish troops.

Members of the Leuchars-based Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, deployed on a UN peacekeeping operation on the Mediterranean island, paid tribute to Surgeon-captain Gordon Charles Edwyn Wilson at a special Remembrance Day ceremony.

The 29-year-old was shot dead in his car when he stopped at traffic lights on his way to attend to Greek Cypriot patients in Nicosia on September 26 1956.

The Royal Horse Guards regimental officer was one of 371 British servicemen to die during the four-year campaign.

He is buried at Wayne’s Keep, the British military cemetery on Cyprus.

Scots DG commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Dom Coombes was contacted by a cousin of Surgeon-capt Wilson to make them aware of his story’s local significance. The commanding officer, along with Lieutenant Gordon Macfarlane and Adjutant Captain Edward Thornton, paid their respects at his graveside on Sunday.

They placed a remembrance cross on his grave before saluting him and marking a silence.

After this, they attended a ceremony in the same graveyard with the remainder of the regiment.

cwarrender@thecourier.co.uk

Clockwise from left: the special ceremony in Cyprus at the weekend; Lt Col Dom Coombes, Lt Gordon Macfarlane and Adjutant Capt Edward Thornton pay respects at the grave of Surgeon-captain Gordon Wilson from St Andrews and his grave in Cyprus.