264254 L/Cpl. John Charles Slack British Army 3rd Btn. Royal Tank Regiment from:Buxton, Derbyshire John Slack was in January 1918, he married in 1948.
He enlisted on 7th of April 1937 and was with British Expeditionary Force in France, in Dunkirk as holding force, was then picked up from the beaches in a small fishing vessel on the night of the 23rd/24th of May 1940.
On 29th of October 1940 he went to the Middle East, to get there he travelled the long way, right round Africa and played Bridge most of the time on the boat and became very good at it.
He was captured in Greece then went to Germany to Stalag XVIIID, prisoner number 5701, reported as missing in action and was a P.o.W from 28th of April 1941 28th of May 1945. He spent some time in Austria living in the barn of the local Mayor whose farm he helped out on. The youngest daughter Gretel brought him his food to the barn each day.
His Commanding Officer was Maj. Basil Carey. An excerpt from a letter he wrote to the next of kin said ..
"It will interest you to know that the Battalion arrived on the Yugoslav border about 10/3/1941, where at Amyndion we awaited the Germans. The Battalion Scout cars actually engaged the Germans in Yugoslavia on the 1941-04-10. A long withdrawal then took place to the southernmost ports of Greece under continual bombing during which all the men behaved splendidly"
The family are still in possession of his cap badge, insignia, P.o.W tags and three medals along with the notification letter that he was Missing In Action, another saying that he had been captured with details of the camp he was in, plus many letters addressed to his family which were written whilst he was a P.o.W.
His Military conduct is listed as exemplary.
John passed away as the result of a road accident in 1983.
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