Paddy Mayne

Robert Blair Mayne, (11 January 1915 – 14 December 1955), better known as Paddy Mayne, was a British Army officer from Newtownards, capped for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions at rugby union, lawyer, amateur boxer, and a founding member of the Special Air Service (SAS).

During the course of the Second World War, Mayne became one of the British Army's most highly decorated soldiers.

He was controversially denied a Victoria Cross.

Robert Blair "Paddy" Mayne was born in Newtownards, County Down, Ireland (now Northern Ireland), the sixth of seven children in a Protestant family.

The Maynes were prominent landowners who owned several retail businesses in the town.

He was named Robert Blair after a second cousin, who at the time of his birth was a British Army officer serving in the First World War.

The family home, Mount Pleasant, is situated on the hills above Newtownards.

Mayne attended Regent House Grammar School.

While at university he took up boxing, becoming Irish Universities Heavyweight Champion in August 1936.

He followed this by reaching the final of the British Universities Heavyweight Championship, but was beaten on points.

With a handicap of 8, he won the Scrabo Golf Club President's Cup the next year.

Mayne's first full Ireland rugby cap also came in 1937, in a match against Wales.

After gaining five more caps for Ireland as a lock forward, Mayne was selected for the 1938 British Lions tour to South Africa.

While the Lions lost the first test, a South African newspaper stated Mayne was "outstanding in a pack which gamely and untiringly stood up to the tremendous task".

He played in seventeen of the twenty provincial matches and in all three tests.

On returning from South Africa, he joined Malone RFC in Belfast.

While on tour in South Africa with the Lions in 1938, Mayne's rambunctious nature came to the fore, smashing up colleagues' hotel rooms, temporarily freeing a convict he had befriended and who was working on the construction of the Ellis Park Stadium, and also sneaking off from a formal dinner to go antelope hunting.

In early 1939, Mayne graduated from Queen's and joined George Maclaine & Co in Belfast, having been articled to TCG Mackintosh for the five previous years.

Mayne won praise during the three Ireland matches he played in 1939, with one report stating "Mayne, whose quiet almost ruthless efficiency is in direct contrast to O'Loughlin's exuberance, appears on the slow side, but he covers the ground at an extraordinary speed for a man of his build, as many a three quarter and full back have discovered."

In March 1939, prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Mayne had joined the Supplementary Reserve in Newtownards and received a commission in the Royal Artillery, being posted to 5 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, in 8th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, later 8th (Belfast) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment.

Then, in April 1940, he was transferred again, this time to the Royal Ulster Rifles.

Following Churchill's call to form a "butcher and bolt" raiding force following the Dunkirk evacuation, Mayne volunteered for the newly formed No. 11 (Scottish) Commando.

He first saw action in June 1941 as a second-lieutenant with 11 Commando during the Syria–Lebanon Campaign.

Mayne successfully led a section of men during the Battle of the Litani River in Lebanon against Vichy French Forces.

The operation was commanded by Major Dick Pedder, Highland Light Infantry, who was killed in action.

Mayne played a distinguished part in the raid, for which he was awarded a mention in despatches.

Mayne's name was recommended to Captain David Stirling by his friend Lt. Eoin McGonigal, a fellow officer of No. 11 (Scottish) Commando, and an early volunteer for the Special Air Service (SAS); then known simply as the Parachute Unit.

It is widely believed that Mayne was under arrest for hitting his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes when Stirling met him.

A hand-written entry in Keyes' personal diary states that he was not at the officer's mess of No. 11 (Scottish) Commando at Salamis on Cyprus on the evening of 21 June 1941, the date on which Mayne was accused of beating up a fellow officer, Major Charles Napier.

Keyes had stayed the night elsewhere, and arrived at Salamis the following day, 22 June 1941, when the trouble was already over.

Keyes states in his diary that he conducted an investigation and found Mayne responsible.

Keyes' diary makes it clear that Mayne was brought before the divisional commander, Brigadier Rodwell, on 23 June, for assaulting Napier, the second-in-command of his battalion.

Mayne had a grudge against Napier, who had not taken part in the Litani raid, and who, according to a serving member of 11 Commando, had shot Mayne's pet dog while Mayne had been away.

Mayne was attached to his pet, and was furious about this.

Keyes' diary records that, on the evening of 21 June, after drinking heavily in the mess, Mayne waited by Napier's tent and assaulted him when he returned.

When the battery was assigned to 9th Anti-Aircraft Regiment (later 9th (Londonderry) Heavy AA Regiment) for overseas' service, Mayne was transferred out to 66th Light AA Regiment in Northern Ireland.

It was there that his talent for rugby union became evident, and he played for the school 1st XV and also the local Ards RFC team from the age of 16.

While at school he also played cricket and golf, and showed aptitude as a marksman in the rifle club.

On leaving school he studied law at Queen's University Belfast, studying to become a solicitor.

While at university, Mayne was an officer cadet with the Queen's University, Belfast Contingent, Officers' Training Corps.