Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a Military rank, rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage f ...

Alastair Ira Slater, MM (25 July 1956 – 2 December 1984) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

soldier who served in 'B' Squadron, Air (7) Troop, 22

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

(SAS), who was killed on 2 December 1984 in a

confrontation Confrontation is an element of conflict wherein parties confront one another, directly engaging one another in the course of a dispute between them. A confrontation can be at any scale, between any number of people, between entire nations or cu ...

with the

Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...

in Kesh, a village in

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. The operation led to the deaths of Provisional Irish Republican Army Volunteers Antoine Mac Giolla Bhrighde and

Kieran Fleming Kieran or Ciarán Fleming (born 25 October 1959 – 2 December 1984), was a Volunteer (Irish republican), volunteer in the 4th Battalion, Derry Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) from the Waterside, Derry, Waterside area ...

, and the arrest of the others. The IRA members had been attempting to ambush a

Royal Ulster Constabulary The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Richard Doherty, ''The Thin Green Line – The History of the ...

police car with a land mine at the time. Slater was

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the British Armed Forces, armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, below commissioned o ...

for his role in the action. Prior to joining the SAS, Slater was a member of 1 Para. He appeared in the 1982 British TV documentary '' The Paras'' as one of the instructors of a group of Parachute Regiment recruits undertaking their basic training. The programme began filming just prior to the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. Slater was one of four SAS soldiers to be killed during

The Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

.Mike Ryan, , books.google.co.uk; accessed 15 November 2015.

References

External links

*
CAIN Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Al 1956 births 1984 deaths Special Air Service soldiers British Parachute Regiment soldiers Recipients of the Military Medal People killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army Deaths by firearm in Northern Ireland British military personnel killed in The Troubles (Northern Ireland) Military personnel from Leicestershire 20th-century British Army personnel