Anastasios Christodoulou - Early Years

Early Years

Christodoulou was born in Cyprus in 1932, the oldest of three sons of Yianni Christodoulos, a cobbler, and his wife, Maria, née Haji. He came to London when he was three to join his father who was working as a kitchen porter in Soho. He hardly knew his mother, who died giving birth to twin sons, who lived. These twin brothers later went to live in Barbados with foster parents. Christodoulou had been born on Easter Day and was named 'Anastasios' by his parents, meaning 'Resurrection'. He lived with his father above a Soho restaurant and early on displayed a precocious intelligence. He went to a local primary school aged five, not knowing a word of English, but by half-term was interpreting for much of the local Greek Cypriot community. Aged 11 he won a place at St Marylebone Grammar School.