This Is Your Life: Sam Derry

Colonel Samuel I DERRY DSO, MC (1914-1996)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Samuel Ironmonger Derry, former Army Officer, was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside the BBC Television Theatre, having been led to believe he was on his way to meet a friend.

Sam, who was born in Newark, served with the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. After escaping Dunkirk, he was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the Battle of Sidi Omar in North Africa. Caught by the Germans in February 1942 and later imprisoned in the Chieti Camp in Italy, Sam led an escape committee, ensuring freedom for many fellow prisoners.

After securing his own escape by jumping from a Rome-bound train, while being transferred to another camp, Sam met Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty in Rome and together, through the Rome Organisation based in the Vatican, they ensured the passage to freedom of several thousand British and American prisoners of war stranded in the Italian countryside after escaping from German captivity.

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