Andreas Panagides
Timeline Events
Biography
Born in the village of Palaiometocho1, Nicosia district, on November 14, 1934.
Hanged in Nicosia Central Prison2 on September 21, 1956.
Andreas Panagides finished the Palaiometocho primary school and worked in the kitchen of the British army at Nicosia airport3. With the beginning of the struggle, he volunteered to serve in the ranks of EOKA, together with his friend, the hero Michael Koutsoftas. Their firm and unwavering insistence convinced the priest Paleometochos Papalefteris to swear an oath to them.
Panagides' first action was to raise the Greek flag. In a search conducted by an English soldier in his bag, at his place of work, immediately after the execution of Michalakis Karaolis and Andreas Dimitriou, he found a Greek flag and asked Andreas to wipe his shoes with it. Andreas was so insulted that he fought with him, beating him savagely. When he went home, he sent his wife and brought him his revolvers that he had given her to hide for him. The next day, when he went to his work at the airport, together with Michael Koutsoftas and another fighter, they attacked and killed the English major Patrick John Hale in his office. They were arrested and sentenced to death. They were both hanged with Stelios Mavrommatis.
The way in which he faced death was shocking, both he and his family, who said goodbye to him with songs on their lips and hands raised in a warm handshake from a distance.“What an honor for the lad…” his father thundered. The patriotic songs of the three future executioners and the other prisoners shook the prisons.
He left his children an invaluable legacy of “an honored name”, as he wrote to them a few minutes after being notified that at dawn on Friday, September 21, 1956, he would be led to the gallows.