Sergeant · #CY 16890 · Light Repair Section
| Rank | Sergeant |
|---|---|
| Service number | #CY 16890 |
| Patrol | Light Repair Section |
| Regiment | Cyprus Regiment |
| Known as | “Eddie” |
| POW / KIA | PoW — Dodecanese, 1943 (exact date undetermined) |
THE “CY” IN HIS SERVICE NUMBER IS NOW SOURCED RATHER THAN INFERRED, and this roll should say so plainly, because until today it was a guess. It had been read as Cyprus from the letters alone and from Aquilina being a Maltese or Cypriot surname — the only prefix on this roll that rested on nothing but inference. Searching the Commission BY REGIMENT rather than by name settles it: the Cyprus Regiment has 299 Second World War casualties in the CWGC, and their service numbers are written in exactly this series — CY/15211, CY/3577, CY/17397, CY/140. CY is the Cyprus Regiment’s own number series, in the Commission’s own records. HIS NUMBER ALSO FITS: CY 16890 falls between CY/15211 and CY/17397, both of them Cyprus Regiment men. AND THE MISSING SLASH MEANS NOTHING — the Commission writes the same series both ways, with Constantinou as a bare 16478 and Haji Panayi as a bare 17515, in that same range. WHAT IS STILL INFERENCE, RECORDED HONESTLY: the regiment has been entered on this card ON THE STRENGTH OF THE PREFIX. The series is sourced; his membership of the regiment is what the prefix implies, and he is not himself in any record that states it. Source: CWGC, Find War Dead, searched by regiment 25 August 2026.
Dodecanese operations, 1943: prisoner of war, 1943 (exact date undetermined). Source: Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA (Appendix V), compiled by Jim Patch, LRDG (UK) Association.
Aegean/Dodecanese operations, 1943: listed as Sergeant Aquilina, service no. CY16890; taken prisoner of war (exact date undetermined). Source: Brendan O’Carroll, ‘The Long Range Desert Group in the Aegean’ (Appendix V, Roll of British & Rhodesian PoW and KIA).
The roll formerly carried this man twice, as “Aquilina (Apicella), E.” and as “Aquilina, E.” — the same service number, written CY 16890 on one and CY16890 on the other, and the same rank of Sergeant. The two were merged in August 2026, keeping the entry that carries his nickname, his section and his capture in the Dodecanese.
CHECKED AGAINST THE COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES COMMISSION, 25 August 2026: NO CASUALTY RECORD, AND HE IS NOT THERE. The Commission holds sixteen men named Aquilina; every one of them is Maltese, Royal Navy, Australian or a Malta civilian, and not one is a Cypriot or a soldier of the Cyprus Regiment. “Apicella” was searched as well, and the number CY 16890 directly. Nothing. THIS IS THE ANSWER TO HOPE FOR. He was taken prisoner in the Dodecanese in 1943, and the Commission records the dead — so his absence from it is evidence that he did not die in captivity. Source: CWGC, Find War Dead, searched 25 August 2026.
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Not By Strength But By Guile