On this day, May 22, 1955, Charilaos Xenophontos planted a bomb targeting the British governor of Cyprus, Sir Robert Armitage

On this day, May 22, 1955, Charilaos Xenophontos planted a bomb targeting the British governor of Cyprus, Sir Robert Armitage.

Charilaos Xenophontos was born in 1925 in Mesogi, Paphos, and served in the British Army during World War II.

He joined the EOKA early on and began carrying out intense and active operations against the British. On May 22, 1955, he planted a bomb under the seat of the British governor Armitage at the Pallas cinema in Nicosia. He was the British authorities’ third most wanted man, for whom they had offered a 5,000-pound reward. The British managed to arrest him and imprisoned him along with other fighters in the Kyrenia Castle, from where he managed to escape on September 23, 1955, along with his fellow fighters. From there, he reached villages in Pitsilia and accompanied Georgios Grivas Digenis on operations in Kakopetria, Galata, and the mountains of Kykkos, where many of the EOKA hideouts were located. However, where Charillis, as he was called, truly distinguished himself was in the epic battle of Spilia against the team of EOKA leader and deputy leader Grigoris Afxentiou.

Charilaos Xenophontos died on September 4, 2011.