Please note the variances in spelling of Flanaghan and Flanagan in this story are intentional and reflect the variances in spelling on various documents

1609685 Private Andrew ‘Andy’ Flanaghan was born on 8^th May 1915. He was the son of Andrew Flanagan and Ellen Flanagan (née Hartshorne). Andrew Snr's occupation was a bricklayer labourer.

In 1921 he was living in the home of his grandmother at 16 Gladstone Street, Longton, Stoke on Trent, along with an uncle, an aunt, his parents and his older sister.

Sometime during the summer of 1939, prior to 29^th September 1939 Andy married Elsie May Jervis in Stoke-on-Trent. The couple were living in Stoke-on-Trent: he worked as a colliery hewer heavy and she worked as pottery gilder.

He enlisted with the Royal Artillery on 3^rd October 1940 before later joining the Parachute Regiment.

From 31 August to 11 September 1943 he attended parachute course No. 63 at Ramat David in Palestine.

After he had successfully obtained his parachute qualification wings, he was assigned to Support Company, Mortar Platoon.

On 26^th September 1944 (the last day of the Battle of Arnhem), he was taken prisoner of war and sent to a prisoner of war camp where he got his POW number 91482.

After spending 14 days at Stalag XIIA Linberg, followed by 10 days at Stalag IVB Mulberg, Andy was finally sent to Stalag IV-C for the period 10^th November 1944 to 7^th May 1945, from where he was liberated by the Russians. Stalag IV-C was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located in Bystřice (now part of the town of Dubí) in German-occupied Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic or Czechia) in the Ore Mountains region.

Whilst being held in prisoner, he was required to work: firstly for about 2 months at Wurzmes as a coal miner (work he would have had experience of being enlisting); and between 21^st February 1945 and 7^th May 1945, laying tram lines at Tschausch.

After the war, Andy and Elsie continued to live together in Stoke-on-Trent, until Elsie sadly passed away in 1975. Andy never forgot his fallen comrades and died on 12^th November 1995, just hours after attending a Remembrance Day event in Stoke-on-Trent.