Searching a Cypriot house, 1955 (c)

Photograph, Cyprus (1955-1959), 1955 (c).

Members of 1st Battalion The Middlesex Regiment accompany police during security duties on Cyprus. In the early 1950s the majority Greek-Cypriot population of Cyprus had been demanding 'Enosis', or union with Greece. In 1954 Britain ruled this out as it planned to transfer its Suez military headquarters to Cyprus. This led Colonel George Grivas's EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) to begin a guerrilla campaign aimed at driving the British out. By mid-1956 there were 17,000 British servicemen in Cyprus.

From a collection of 97 photographs relating to the Middlesex Regiment, 1867-1993.