Mr Kyriakides, was educated on Cyprus, going initially to the Primary School at Dheftera, and then to the English School in Nicosia. He came to England in 1956, and attended the Medway College of Technology for a year before going on to Durham University to read Botany and Zoology. Having been awarded an ordinary BSc, he returned to Cyprus to teach biology at the English School for Girls in Nicosia.

He came back to Durham University in 1962 to convert his degree to Honours in Zoology and, with this qualification, he became an "assistant master" at the South Shields Grammar-Technical School for Boys in Jun, 1963.

He left in April, 1968, to teach in a school in Uganda.