Honoured at last
Medals for ex-soldier
The army have honoured a Whitburn man almost 60 years after he finished his National Service.
William Drysdale was awarded General Service Medals for his time in Cyprus between 1958 and 1960.
Having trained as a plumber, William was called- up for National Service at the age of 21.
He was posted to Southampton and then on to Famagusta in Cyprus where Greece and Turkey were engaged in a bitter dispute over who owned the island.
His 18 months in Cyprus was not acknowledged by the British Government for half a century.
But William’s son, also named William, who served with the Royal Scots in Iraq, petitioned the army to get his dad the recognition he deserved.
And on a visit to Whitburn’s Hillcroft Hotel last weekend, 79-year-old William was given a pleasant surprise when Paul Robinson and David Milne, representing The Royal Scots Association, showed up.
Mr Robinson, who is chairman Central Branch of the RSA, presented William with the medals and he was given a standing ovation.
Speaking to the Courier following the ceremony, William said: “I didn’t expect them, it came as a complete shock.
“My wife got handed flowers and I saw two soldiers coming through the doors and I thought they must be for my son Billy. I didn’t know they were for me.
“Billy made his speech about people doing National Service in Suez, Korea and Cyprus. There wasn’t a war that those doing National Service weren’t involved in. The only thing is that we’ve never been recognised.”
William admitted that despite some boring tasks and being thrown into a conflict zone, he enjoyed his stint with the army.
He said: “Cyprus was a hostile place at that time because Turkey owned the island but there was a majority Greek population.
“Famagusta had its murder mile and any troops who went down there would get shot. It could be quite scary at times and you were never allowed to walk about alone outside the camp. “But it was a good experience.” And he even got to meet some Hollywood stars of the time. William said: “It turned out they were filming Exodus in Cyprus.
“There were loads of buses heading for Nicosia and the one I was on had Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint and Sal Mineo on it.
“The villagers would stone the buses, we had to protect them.
“I remember stopping for a break on the journey and me and a sergeant had the rations out.
“Sal Mineo and Paul Newman came walking up and asked what we were eating. We told them it was the beans and corned beef the army gave us.
“They told us to throw it to the birds and to go and eat with them. They treated us like royalty.”
He added: “I’m very proud of the medals. It only took nearly 60 years to get them.”