Matthew Slater enlisted into the British Army on 8th September 2004 aged 17, arriving at the 1st Battalion the Royal Anglian Regiment – the Vikings – on 18th April 2005. He spent his entire career as a Viking. It is a testament to his personality that everyone knew ‘Slats’.

He started his career with A (Norfolk) Company, deploying on Op HERRICK 6 as a Private soldier. It was to mark the beginning of a professional career that would see him return to Afghanistan for a further four deployments over the following thirteen years.

Having completed the Junior Non-Commissioned Officers’ course and promoted to Lance Corporal, he returned to Afghanistan in 2009-10 on Op HERRICK 11, stepping up to the role of Section Commander.

In 2010 then Lance-Corporal Slater joined the Sniper Platoon for what would become a decade of service. Whilst in D (Cambridgeshire) Company he completed both the arduous Section Commanders’ Battle Course – earning promotion to Corporal – and the Sniper Section Commanders’ Course. He deployed again to Afghanistan on Op HERRICK 16 in 2012. After a serious motorbike accident and a lengthy period of rehabilitation he fought back to fitness to attend and pass the challenging Platoon Sergeants’ Battle Course in 2018.

He returned to Afghanistan again on Op TORAL 7 in 2015, attached this time to B (Suffolk) Company. His fourth deployment to the country, he found himself in the comparatively benign capital city of Kabul. After returning to the UK, Sergeant Slater finally left the Sniper Platoon – now as the Platoon Sergeant – to take up post as a Rifle Platoon Sergeant in C (Essex) Company in Summer 2020. At the end of that year he would return to Afghanistan for the final time. He spent Op TORAL 11 in Kabul, watching the beginning of the end of a campaign that had been central to his professional career.
Sgt Slater was the epitome of a professional soldier renowned for his fitness, attention to detail and professional excellence. On multiple tours of Afghanistan he demonstrated his warrior ethos and his true Viking spirit. Sgt Slater will be sorely missed by The Regiment and in particular those Vikings past and present who served with him.

Stabilis