Frank McLardy

George Frank McLardy MPS (17 November 1915 – 16 December 1981) was a member of the British Union of Fascists, a British Nazi collaborator and an Unterscharführer in the Waffen-SS British Free Corps during the Second World War.

McLardy was born at 8 Sweden Grove in Waterloo, Lancashire in November 1915, the eldest son of a draper, George McLardy, and his wife Mary (née Wood) McLardy.

He had two younger brothers.

He attended St Edmund's School, Waterloo and St Mary's College, Crosby, where he was a member of the First XV rugby and First XI cricket teams.

Academically bright, McLardy progressed into St Mary's College Sixth Form.

Upon leaving school in 1934 he studied pharmacy at the Liverpool School of Pharmacy.

McLardy subsequently moved with his family to live in nearby Formby, where he was articled to a chemist.

The intelligence service MI5 began monitoring his activities in July 1937.

On the outbreak of World War II, McLardy volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps.

He was posted to Aldershot, and owing to his qualifications, was promoted to the rank of sergeant.

He qualified as a Member of the Pharmaceutical Society in October 1939.

That same year he joined the British Union of Fascists (BUF), becoming first district treasurer, then district leader in Waterloo.

McLardy sold the BUF magazine Action around Crosby and Waterloo, and held his BUF meetings in a local public house, The Crosby Hotel.

On 9 May 1940, he landed in France with the British Expeditionary Force.

After pushing as far north as Brussels, his unit was beaten back by the Germans towards Dunkirk.

McLardy was captured near Wormhoudt on 31 May 1940.

It was suspected that he deliberately became separated from his unit to be captured.

He was sent first to Stalag XX-A at Thorn, and soon on to Stalag XXI-A at Schildberg (both in Poland).

For three years McLardy remained in Schildberg as an ordinary prisoner of war, performing medical duties for his fellow prisoners in the camp hospital.

Around this time McLardy began complaining of "heart trouble" and "ear problems."

He hoped for repatriation to the UK.

His hopes were dashed in September 1943, however, when he was told that instead he would be moving to Stalag XXI-D at Posen, reputedly the worst camp in Poland.

McLardy claimed that he "would not survive another Polish winter", and recalled a conversation with a "Dutch officer" in Stalag XXI-A who stated that he had applied to join the Waffen-SS with a view to ultimately escape.

McLardy approached a surprised Abwehr officer at Schildberg with the request that he might join the Waffen-SS.

His application, written in his own hand in English was translated into German, then typed and forwarded to Berlin.

It stated "I hereby apply to offer my services to Germany in the common struggle against Bolshevism and I express my willingness to serve as a soldier against Soviet Russia." Frank McLardy thus became the first British POW of World War II to volunteer to join the German armed forces.

A reply was received three weeks later when an Abwehr guard arrived at the camp to escort him to Berlin.

McLardy was taken first to Stalag IIID/517S at Genshagen, south of Berlin.

This was a "holiday" or Propaganda Camp established by the Germans in early 1943.

Batches of prisoners from other camps were regularly sent there and offered special privileges in an attempt to undermine their loyalty.

A recurring dream of Hitler's was the propaganda value of a battalion of British POWs who might be persuaded to go into battle against the Russians.

An early attempt at recruitment had ended in abject failure.

The Legion of St George had been the brainchild of John Amery.

He toured the internment camps of France, distributing leaflets entitled "Why die for Stalin? Why die for the Jews?"

His only recruit was Kenneth Berry, a 17-year-old deckhand from a sunken ammunition ship, and Amery was soon sidelined by the Germans.

But a group of men at Stalag IIID now caught the Germans' eye as the potential nucleus for another attempt to form such a foreign legion.

Soon to be known as the "Big Six", they were William Brittain, New Zealander Roy Courlander, Canadian Edwin Barnard Martin, Seaman Alfred Minchin and McLardy.

These men were packed off to a requisitioned bierkeller in Pankow, Berlin and placed under the tutelage of Thomas Haller Cooper, a half-German who had already served in the SS Totenkopf and SS Polizei Division and boasted of committing atrocities against Jews and Russian POWs in Poland.

The group decided among themselves to change the name of the Legion to the British Free Corps and soon set about designing uniforms and recruitment leaflets.

McLardy was given the rank of SS-Unterscharführer, and put in charge of propaganda.