Kyriakos Matsis

Kyriakos Matsis (Κυριάκος Μάτσης) (23 January 1926 - 19 November 1958

EOKA Matsis, along with his uncle George Matsis, joined EOKA in 1955, soon after the organisation was established by George Grivas, a Greek Cypriot Colonel of the Greek Army, and started armed operations against the British colonial authorities.

In 1956, Matsis was caught by the British and imprisoned at the Kokkinotrimithia prison. He managed to escape, and fled onto the Pendadactylos area, where he continued working for EOKA, taking up command of military operations in the Kyrenia region. On 19 November, during a search by the security forces undertaken on the advice of an informer, Kyriakos Matsis along with two other EOKA guerillas were discovered staying at the house of Kyriakos Diakos, in Dikomo, near Kyrenia. Matsis destroyed all the papers and letters he was carrying and directed his comrades to surrender. After he was asked to surrender himself, he eventually responded that if he were to come out, he'd come out shooting. He was killed by a grenade in the gun battle that ensued.

His body was buried by the British authorities in the special yard, inside the Central Jail of Nicosia.

Subsequent to this operation, it was made clear by the Colonial Office that the military in Cyprus should "finish off the job" and find Grivas. John Profumo, the junior Office minister, oversaw a special executive order to speed up the flow of military material to the island.