South Yorkshire Times, February 2, 1957

Smart Soldier
Thurnscoe Man finds Terrorist Hide out

A 29-year-old soldier in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, Private John Davies, 17, Marlborough Avenue, Thurnscoe, played an important part in the capture of George Matsis, a desperate young EOKA leader who was hiding with two companions in a cottage in the Cyprus village of Sarand last weekend.

Premier Davies was taking part in a swoop on the area where the terrorists were hiding, when he found a trap door in the floor of a cottage which you are searching. He shovelled the soil away from the trap door and called his company commander, Lt David Gilbert Smith, a 25 year old Scottish rugby international.

Lt Smith took off part of his uniform, and lowered himself into the hole, where he discovered three men, cowering in a corner of the underground hideout. The office then orders them to the surface, where they were taken into custody by private Davies and his companions.

As private Davies’s married sister, Mrs Nora Whitehurst, with whom he lives when his home on leave, first learnt of the news from her eight years old daughter, June who read it in a morning newspaper.

“We are all very proud of John,” said Mrs Whitehouse, “but we are rather worried about him being out there. We have not heard from him since he landed in Cyprus in the New Year, and I don’t know where I can send a letter to him.”

Private Davies joined the army in last summer as a regular soldier, after leaving his underground job at Hickleton Main Colliery. He has worked in the mine since leaving Thurnscoe Hill School.