Air Chief Marshal Sir John Alexander Carlisle Aiken, KCB (22 December 1921 – 31 May 2005) was a senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer, and the Commander of British forces in Cyprus at the time of the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974.
Educated at Birkenhead School, Aitken joined the Royal Air Force in 1941,[1] serving in the Second World War in North-West Europe, flying Spitfires with No.
[1] In 1948 he became an instructor at the RAF College Cranwell before becoming Officer Commanding Birmingham University Air Squadron in 1950.
29 Squadron in 1956 and a Staff Officer at Headquarters Allied Forces Northern Europe in 1958.
[1] He remained there throughout the period of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, during which time he was responsible for organising the evacuation of several thousand foreign nationals from Nicosia and Limassol.