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John Frederick Durnford-Slater, DSO and bar (1909 – 5 February 1972) was a British Army officer who was credited with raising the first Army commando unit during the Second World War. An officer in the Royal Artillery who eventually rose to the rank of brigadier, he was responsible for developing many of aspects of the commando concept. Commanding No. 3 Commando he participated in raids on Guernsey, the Lofoten Islands, Vaagso, Dieppe and Sicily. In Italy he commanded the Commando brigade that undertook the capture of Termoli, before serving as deputy commander of the Special Service Group, a divisional level headquarters unit that planned and administered all commando operations during Operation Overlord and the advance into Germany. ==Early life== Durnford-Slater was born in 1909 to Leonard Slater and his wife Constance (née Pridham)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Instow War Memorial )〕 and grew up in Instow, in the north of Devon.〔Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 12.〕〔Upon his birth, the subject's surname was simply Slater, however, after his mother remarried following his father's death, it seems that she combined her first and second husbands' surnames.〕 His family had a strong military tradition; his maternal grandfather had served in the army, as had his mother's second husband when she remarried following his father's death. His own father had been a regular officer who had been killed on 14 September 1914 while serving with the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment in France during the First World War.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Casualty details—Slater, Leonard )〕 From the outset his mother encouraged him to pursue a career in the army. At the age of 13 Durnford-Slater was sent to Wellington, a school with a long army tradition. Nevertheless, as a teenager Durnford-Slater professed that he had no desire to pursue a military career, indeed, he hated the training that he was required to undertake as part of the Officer Training Corps having difficulty learning drill and constantly drawing the ire of instructors for the poor state of his uniform.〔Durnford-Slater 2002, p. 13.〕 As he grew up he professed a desire to move to Argentina and breed horses, having heard anecdotes of life in South America from people who lived in his village. His mother, however, continued to push him towards a career in the army, hoping that he would follow in his father's footsteps and join the Royal Sussex Regiment.〔 In the end she managed to convince him that a military career was the best option for him given the limited financial resources available to him with which to pursue his business interests.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Durnford-Slater」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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