Littleton’s Larry Slattery became the first ‘British’ Prisoner of War (PoW) to be captured when the Bristol Blenheim IV aircraft that he was a gunner on was shot down just one day after Britain had declared war on Germany.
He would also become the longest detained British PoW of the entire war, not being freed until Allied troops reached his PoW camp in Stalagin April 1945.
The aircraft’s pilot, Willie Murphy from Mitchelstown, died some days afterwards from his injuries and he would become the first recorded British fatality of the war. Slattery escaped relatively unscathed, suffering a broken ankle and a broken jaw.
Larry was well known locally in Thurles and worked for a building contractor, James Skehan, before enlisting in the Royal Air Force(R.A.F) before the war broke out. He was an accomplished violinist. After being transferred to Stalag camp in May 1942, he obtained a violin through the Red Cross which sent musical instruments to enable the formation of a camp orchestra.This was duly founded by Frank Hunt, and eventually the orchestra numbered 70 members with Larry as the leader. Larry often played in the barracks at night and saved the sanity of a good many prisoners of war.
After the war, Larry served with the occupying forces in Germany. It has been suggested that he worked as an interpreter at the post-war Nuremburg trials where twelve prominent Nazis were sentenced to death. He later joined the Civil Service in London and was the Leader of the Civil Service Orchestra.He was also the prime mover in establishing the Royal Air Forces ex-Prisoner of War Association.
The six years in the PoW camp had taken its toll on Slattery’s health and he died on 6 September 1972, still in his late fifties. He is buried in London.
Sources:
http://www.hiddentipperary.com/2017/12/littleton-co-tipperary-world-war-ii/
https://tipperarystudies.ie/1939-first-pow-honour-is-no-flattery-to-slattery/
https://larryslatteryfund.org/about/
https://presspass.ie/pp/wp-content/uploads/1679225211POW-1-Final.pdf
