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LEONIDAS PANAYIDES
24 April 1914 - 18 September 1997
Place of birth: Astromeritis
Year of arrival in the UK: 1936
 
My father came to UK in 1936 from Astromeritis. He worked in restaurants and restaurant clubs (the famous Casino being one) in London, sharing rooms with fellow Astrometianous and other Cypriots. When he had settled, he started sending invitations to many of his fellow villagers to join him in England.
He lived in London and then Birmingham, returning to London at near the end of the war to open restaurants in Kingston and Camberley, one being called the Majestic.
He was able to send work visa invitations for fellow Cypriots and provide them with a job in the restaurants and somewhere to sleep until they moved on.
He involved himself in the Cypriot Brotherhood being a founder and trustee, of their building in Fitzroy Square, having the foresight to buy the freehold for the Association. It soon became the main meeting place for Cypriots in London.
He got involved in church matters and became the chairman of the All Saints Church Committee in Camden Town, a church "catering/ministering" to Greek Cypriots.
He helped to fund a number of churches for his fellow co-religionists in England, one being St. George's in Kingston, where he acted as the first chairman of the church committee.
He involved himself in the liberation movement, raising monies for the cause, lobbying ministers, and visiting EOKA members imprisoned in UK jails.
He was ostracised and investigated by UK authorities and his businesses suffering a number of attacks.
Throughout his life he did his best to send monies back to his village in Cyprus and also to his wife's in Greece-both poverty-stricken. He was one of the first to send farming machinery such as tractors to Cyprus and the first to finance a mechanical well in his part of Cyprus. He brought people over for medical treatment, housing them and running them to doctors and hospitals. I remember two boys staying at our house who were blind but who had their sight partly restored, with my father financing it and being proud to attend their weddings when they became adults. Some Cypriots, who died, he arranged to have them returned to Cyprus. Many students came to stay at his home and he helped to arrange University places for them and helping them out financially as needed.
After the Turkish invasion he headed the committee, which raised monies, taking two shiploads of aid to Cyprus-clothes, tents, sleeping bags, food, and distributing it as well as helping to organise blood donor banks immediately after the invasion.
He was I believe a true Cypriot, someone who sought to give refuge to his people during difficult times, with many Cypriots passing through his "sanctuary" in Kingston before moving to other parts of London, Manchester, Weston-super-Mare, Birmingham and Glasgow.
 He was very proud of not only being a Greek and a Cypriot but an Astromeritianos. Many say that it was due to him that Astromeritis came to be known quite widely and he used his influence to get jobs for his fellow villagers in the new Cyprus, turning down offers of ministerial positions by Archbishop Makarios, an old friend.
He truly loved his fellow Cypriots and only wanted to return to the soil of his birth.
By Dr. Charles Panayides
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