Location: Larnaca

The Army Children's School in Larnaca.

David Arden (pictured above) remembers:

Army Childrens SchooI,Larnaca

I was posted to ACS Larnaca in April 1964, the early morning journey from Akrotiri to Larnaca was memorable for the fact that all the orange groves were in full bloom.

At that time Larnaca was an overflow town for the main base at Dhekelia and had a fair number of Service families living in it. The school was situated on the Nicosia Road on the edge of Larnaca and consisted of a large building which housed a haII, a cIassroom,store rooms and an office.

There were also several Nissan huts used as classrooms and a small house which served as a staff room and further storage.The Headmaster was Mr Andrew Mathieson DFC, a former RAF bomber pilot and I think there were a further 5 or 6 members of staff.

The caretaker and cleaners were all local Cypriots. I think there were around 150 children at the school and they were bussed to school by the Lefkaritis Bus Company in old English Bedford buses.

Summer hours were 8 to 1 and the rest of the year normal 9 to 4 with a break for lunch.

The usual curriculum was followed with one or two interesting variations. Larnaca being a seaside town swimming lessons were taken on a local beach,the children being taken there by the ubiquitous Bedford buses. Football was played on a pitch at the Danish UN Camp on the Larnaca By-pass again using the Bedford buses.

Two sections of a covered walkway were converted into a small menagerie, the first part housing guinea pigs, tortoises and a rabbit and the second part a collection of birds.

The children could go in, under supervision, and handle the animals and feed them. I recall once taking my class to Nicosia for the day and visiting a farm on the outskirts where the children fed bunches of clover to the cows.

We later ate our packed lunches in a local park where I was pleased to discover that all the swings, slides and roundabouts had been made in my home town of Kettering!

Once a week Brownies and Cubs met in the School and a soldier from Dhekelia came down one afternoon a week in the Summer and gave the boys boxing lessons.I  remember that at one time we had nine sets of twins in the school and these were photographed for the Army newspaper.

In 1967 the numbers of troops in Dhekelia was cut back and there was no longer need for a school in Larnaca and it closed in July of that year.