MURDERERS, THIEVES, BUGGERS AND DESERTERS

As an 18-year-old National Serviceman LANCE CORPORAL KENNETH 'GEORDIE' CASTLE was posted to 52 Military Corrective Training Detention Center in Wayne's Keep, Nicosia, and arrived in January 1958. More than half a century later he remembers the

THE NICOSIA detention center was built during World War II to hold military prisoners from all over the Middle East and North Africa. At any one time, between 200 and 300 prisoners were held there in the care of the Military Provost Corps and attached staff from other front line regiments seconded to the MPSC for a specific period. I was one of those attached and known as 23418286 L/Cpl Castle, K A, RASC.

Lance Corporal Kenneth Castle ready for another day's work.

I was employed as a documentation clerk responsible for the daily records of incoming and outgoing prisoners. I had access to all documents relating to their offences and had to check that they had been sentenced under the right paragraph of Military Law before full admission. The prisoners were kept in a holding compound until this process was completed.

These servicemen had been found guilty of crimes including murder, robbery and desertion. The Administration staff worked from corrugated metal huts that became ovens in the heat of a Cyprus day.

While officers were never held at the Wayne's Keep detention center, there were several senior NCOs and those reduced to the ranks. Regular servicemen outnumbered National Servicemen by about 75 per cent.

The detainees came from all three services - Army, Navy and Air Force - and lived in tented accommodation in compounds within barbed wire perimeter fences with gated entrances.

There were two towers in the outer fence of the camp, which were manned by troops with Bren guns, who were authorized to fire over the head of any person attempting to escape. They also had floodlights to illuminate the camp at night if the need arose.

The Prison was staffed by three shifts comprising of early, late and nightshift.

During this period we had to mount a 24-hour guards around the perimeter fence, which, at times, consisted of Stage II detainees during the day and we had to carry out night guard duties, with a dog that was long past his retirement date. I had the pleasure of 'controlling' him.

We were often called out at night when a prisoner or two tried to breakout and escape into the countryside. On these occasions, we all had designated routes to take in our Land Rovers. Our team's responsibility was to head across the plain in the direction of Kyrenia to cut off any escape routes to the north. Our aim was to capture the prisoners before an EOKA gang found them.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: When Corporal Gordon Hill and Private Ronnie Shilton of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment went missing, they fell into EOKA's hands and paid with their lives. Hill had deserted on 19 December 1955 and Shilton on 17 April 1956.)

The EOKA leaflet that announced the capture of Hill and Shilton.

(Hill's body was found buried in the Kyrenia hills, during Operation Sparrowhawk on 15 October 1956. The Coroner said his death was due to strangulation. His date of death could not be determined.)

(Shilton's corpse was discovered in a shallow grave in a field near Famagusta on 2 February 1957. A captured terrorist confessed later in court that the soldier's 'execution' had been 'horribly bungled'. EOKA fired three bullets at him, but he survived. He was finally dispatched by a blow to the head, with the shovel that he had used to dig his grave. The alleged killer was Michael Rossides.)

IN THE two years of my service at 52 MCTC there were about four escapes, but the soldiers were eventually caught or gave themselves up before getting into more trouble.

Not many detainees broke the rules as I recall. But we did have a National Serviceman who kept re-offending and by the time I saw him, his two years in the Army had been extended to five to make up for the time he had spent 'inside'.

There were also approximately 150 Turkish Cypriots held at the center. They were suspected of belonging to the TMT, an underground organization created to counter the Greek Cypriots' EOKA movement. The Turks had there own separate compound and cooked their own meals from supplies brought by their families. The TMT detainees were managed by our military staff and were not treated any differently from the British prisoners, except for their catering requirements.

The Army Catering Corps prepared the British detainees' food, but if any Stage II had been a cook prior to his sentence, he was seconded to the cookhouse to lend a hand. No one ever died from starvation!

Military prisoners were locked up in their compound from 19.00 until 06.00 when they started the new day with breakfast, followed by a parade before intensive training on an assault course until lunchtime. After lunch they had more exercise until their evening meal. Immediately afterwards they returned to their compounds to clean kit, ready for the next day. The regime was hard, but when the prisoners were released they were very fit soldiers.

Everyday life inside 52 MCTC was 'at the double' with arms shoulder high when moving around the prison. Staff and detainees were expected to dress immaculately at all times, which was very hard in temperatures of 100 degrees. This meant the use of two uniforms a day, starched and pressed.

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob Copeland, a Sapper, peered into the prison camp on the day after his arrival in Cyprus. He comments: 'I noticed the fence was at least ten feet high and topped with barbed wire. Beyond the confines of the fence were several soldiers, fully kitted out in FSMO, being marched at the trot around a rectangular drill area. Sweat poured from their foreheads and it was possible to see the sweat stains on their tunics as well as the strain on their faces.

'A Staff Sergeant seemed intent on ensuring that not only the unfortunate victims heard him, but so should everyone within a radius of two miles. This gentleman was assisted by three other Staff Sergeants, whose primary purpose appeared to be to repeat each command by bawling it in the ears of the nearest poor soul. It took only one look in my direction from the Staff Sergeant to convince me that my presence would not be welcomed at this juncture. The recipients of the harassment were offenders guilty of some heinous crime at least in the eyes of the Army. I QUICKLY ABSENTED MYSELF!')

FOR GOOD behavior, long-term detainees were promoted to Stage II, when they were given general duties around camp and needed only to attend certain parades. One such Stage II prisoner, ordered to clean the latrines used petrol instead of disinfectant. For my sins, I was the next person to use them. I was a smoker at the time and dropped my cigarette into the pan. BOOM! I could hardly sit down for a week.

My worst experience, however, was being put into a Hessian straightjacket to find out what it was like. 'If we must restrain someone, you need to know how it feels,' said the boss. I think they were banned in the late 60s.

During The Emergency, the Center provided working parties for various outside tasks. On one occasion I was on escorting some detainees to a job outside Nicosia, when a terrorist threw a bomb into the back of our three-ton truck, while we were crossing a bridge. Ever alert, a member of staff gave it a lightning kick and it landed several yards away, where it exploded and killed three Greek Cypriots.

Not even then did we fraternize with our detainees. To do our job properly, we had to stay separate and aloof. Our only concern was that they did their time for their crime. But rules are sometimes broken, as happened when we were taking a dozen prisoners to their unit - the Royal Ulster Rifles in Platres - to celebrate St Patrick's Day.

We left Wayne's Keep at 06.00 for the drive to the Troodos Mountains. At the RUR camp we were met by the battalion's RSM and handed over our charges. I told him that the happy soldiers had freedom only for the day.

The Governor, Field Marshal Sir John Harding, visits 1 RUR in 1956. The Regiment's RSM stands rigidly at attention.

For the next several hours, we celebrated, with plenty of beer flowing. At midnight, we began our journey back, carrying 12 detainees in various states of drunkenness. A good day had been had by all. And not one soldier had given us any trouble. This was the only occasion to the best of my knowledge that detainees were allowed out to socialize and then return. It was then back to our strict regime.

Wednesdays were reserved for the Commandant's Parade when all prisoners turned out. I remember we had six prisoners from the 1st Battalion of the Cameronians, who had been stationed in Bahrain and Oman. They were the smartest soldiers on every parade.

In 1958, 3 Para arrived in Cyprus to standby to fly to the Lebanon to deal with another threat in the Middle East. While they were waiting, several of their young officers claimed their men were fitter than ours and challenged 52 MCTC to a race over our assault course. Our detainees were in peak condition and won. Perhaps there's a moral there.

During my time at the center, I grew up very quickly into a young man after reading the records of the detainees and watching them. Whatever their crime, they were treated firmly but fairly by the staff, especially our Commandant, Major S F Harris who was a real gentleman. I am indebted to them all for the training I received during my time with them. It gave me a great start when I returned to civilian life. I think I learned more about man-management in two years than I have in the rest of my working life.

52 MCTC celebrates Christmas Day 1958 with Dinner served by the senior ranks.

I would like to thank all members of staff past and present for my memorable two years at 52 MCTC Wayne's Keep.

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