MEMORIAL
convicted on a charge of murder. A report from the UK’s Guardian newspaper of March 13, 1957, reads: “Sergeant Leach alleged that Sampson admitted under interrogation after his arrest that he killed Thorogood. When Sergeant Leach was quoting from the alleged oral statement, Sampson stood up and banged his fist on the edge of the dock saying, ‘It’s a lie’.” Sampson was found guilty and received the death penalty. This was later commuted to life imprisonment.
palace for their actions. Stella collected a George Medal for bravery for her late husband and Demmon’s father received the Queen’s Police Medal for gallantry awarded to his late son. Eden died by accident 24 hours before the announcement of his award. Another accidental death was recorded in June 1957. Sgt Critchley (28), who
ACCIDENTAL DEATHS The memorial at the Old British Cemetery in Kyrenia includes the names of British policemen who died accidentally and from non-conflict related incidences. Maurice Eden, who heroically survived the Nicosia hospital ambush in August 1956 passed away the following December. According to an official statement, he was in a hotel bedroom in Famagusta with his wife Stella, who he married six months beforehand, when his pistol fell to the floor and went off. The bullet pierced his chin and lodged in his brain. He was taken to Nicosia military hospital but died soon after admission. Eden and Sergeant Demmon, who died in the hospital ambush, received posthumous awards at Buckingham
28 | POLICE | OCTOBER | 2025
“It was the first time a British police unit had been assigned to an overseas trouble- spot but by no means the last.”
served seven years with the West Riding Constabulary, was holding a pistol in his right hand when “the accident happened”, according to his wife Lydia Critchley. “During a continued hearing, she said she was certain that Sgt. Critchley did not realise there was a bullet in the chamber, which was usually empty,” according to a news report in the Evening Post of June 21, 1957. She added: ‘he was not used to that gun and did not like it’.” That same week Arthur Coote (38) of Durham County Constabulary was killed when a car he was in overturned near Paphos. Coote from Roseworth, Stockton-on-Tees, Durham, who had
arrived in Cyprus in January 1956, was in the car with four other members of the British services including two British policewomen who had arrived in Cyprus a fortnight beforehand. The others were all injured. Coote was the only fatality. One of the last murders of a British officer occurred in October 1958. Stanley Woodward (36) had started his policing career in 1940 with the Tynemouth borough police. Seven years later he was transferred to Durham County Constabulary. Woodward was patrolling a mountainous area near Prodromos village in central Cyprus when his vehicle came under fire in an ambush.
Woodward left behind a wife, Kathleen Woodward of Adfrid, County Durham and two daughters: Kathleen Ann (12) and Shirley (7).
END OF THE EMERGENCY By the end of 1958, all parties were seeking a compromise. A solution was found. Under the London and Zürich Agreements, signed in February 1959, Cyprus would gain independence. EOKA declared a ceasefire in March of that year and in August 1960 the island was declared a self-ruling republic. However, one more name was added to the list of British police officers who died during the Emergency.
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