Rear-Admiral Sir Matthew Sausse Slattery, KBE, CB, FRAeS (12 May 1902 – 16 March 1990) was a British naval officer, military aviator and businessman.

Slattery was one of a small number of naval officers who took the first Fleet Air Arm training course in 1924, qualifying as a pilot at Netheravon Airfield.

[5] His work in these roles resulted in further development of the Fairey Swordfish and the introduction of the Hawker Sea Hurricane and the Supermarine Seafire.

[18] Slattery led Short Brothers and Harland at a time when they developed a number of experimental aircraft designs, though none would see significant production.

The prolonged and troubled development of the Britannia resulted in the design being quickly overtaken by the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and for British customers in particular, the Vickers VC10.

[24] Slattery took over as chairman of the state owned carrier BOAC on 29 July 1960, after Gerard d'Erlanger stood down from the role to return to his other business interests.

[1] Slattery retained Basil Smallpeice as managing director, and the duo set about cutting costs at the airline as the deterioration which had begun under d'Erlanger's tenure continued.

BOAC would incur significant losses in 1961 and 1962 amidst decreasing passenger loadings, comparatively high maintenance costs and ongoing payments to Vickers for the VC10 orders.

[28] Basil Smallpeice, concerned about the financial performance of BOAC, the additional competition from Cunard Eagle Airways and the inability to obtain additional Boeing 707 aircraft any other way, began talks in April 1962 to merge BOAC's North Atlantic operations with those of Cunard Eagle.

[29][30] Agreement was reached in early June 1962 on ownership percentages, and the newly formed company, BOAC-Cunard, began operations later that month.

[37] Giles Guthrie, a respected aviator, merchant banker and director of British European Airways took over from Slattery as chairman.

[41] The Geddes Report broadly encouraged rationalisation of the British shipbuilding industry, and Hawthorn Leslie would merge their shipbuilding assets with those of Swan Hunter, John Readhead & Sons and the River Tyne assets of Vickers-Armstrongs to form Swan Hunter Group in 1968.

[44] Slattery served as a director of the Swan Hunter Group from the time of the merger in 1968 through to 1973, when he retired from Hawthorn Leslie and Company.

He remained on the board after leaving BOAC, and took over from the late John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara as an independent representative.

[1] Their son, David Antony Slattery, was a noted occupational physician who served as Rolls-Royce plc's chief medical officer and later lectured at the University of Liverpool.

[52] He was subsequently appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in the 1960 New Year Honours for his work advising the government on the transport of oil from the Middle East.