Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Blair Mayne, (11 January 1915 – 14 December 1955), best known as Paddy Mayne or familiarly as Blair, was a British Army officer from Newtownards. He was an amateur boxing champion, qualified as a solicitor and played rugby union for Ireland and the British Lions before becoming a founding member of the Special Air Service (SAS).
Serving with distinction during the Second World War, Mayne became one of the British Army's most highly decorated officers. He was controversially denied the Victoria Cross, a decoration which King George VI remarked "so strangely eluded him".
Early life and sporting achievements
Robert Blair Mayne was born at Newtownards, County Down, Ireland, the child of a staunch Presbyterian family of Scottish extraction. The Maynes became prominent in Ulster as merchants and landowners, owning several retail businesses in County Down. Mayne was christened Robert Blair after a second cousin, Lt Claude Leslie Blair , who at the time of his birth was serving with the Royal Engineers in the First World War. The family home, Mount Pleasant House, was situated on the hills above Newtownards.
Mayne attended Regent House Grammar School. His talent for rugby union became evident, and he played for the school first XV and also the local Ards RFC team from the age of 16. While at RHGS he also played cricket and golf, and showed aptitude as a marksman in the rifle club. Mayne then went up to read law at Queen's University Belfast, studying to become a solicitor.
As an undergraduate at Queen's, Mayne 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 as an adult was 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighed 15.5 stone (98 kg).
Mayne's first full Ireland rugby cap also came in 1937, in a match against Wales. After gaining five more caps 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. While touring, Mayne's rambunctious nature came to the fore, smashing up teammates' 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. Returning home from South Africa, he joined Malone RFC in Belfast.
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".
Also an Officer Cadet in Queen's University, Belfast Contingent, Officers' Training Corps, Mayne graduated from Queen's as LLB in early 1939, joining George Maclaine & Co. in Belfast, having been articled in the solicitor's firm of Thomas C.G. Mackintosh for the five previous years.
In February 1939, prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Mayne joined the 4th Battalion (Extra Reserve) of the Royal Ulster Rifles at Newtownards before receiving, the following month, a commission in the Royal Artillery and was posted to 5 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery (5LAA), in 8 Anti-Aircraft Regiment, later 8 (Belfast) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment. When 5 LAA Battery was assigned to 9 Anti-Aircraft Regiment for overseas service, Mayne was transferred out to 66 Light AA Regiment in Northern Ireland. Then, in April 1940, he was transferred back to the Royal Ulster Rifles.
Following Winston 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 being seconded to the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). 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, being mentioned in despatches.
Mayne's friend Lieutenant Eoin McGonigal recommended him to Captain David Stirling McGonigal was a fellow subaltern in 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 Keyes when Stirling met him. According to Keyes' personal diary he was not at 11 Commando officers' mess 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 Brigadier Reginald 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 dog in his absence. Mayne was furious about this, having been attached to his loyal pet. 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. Keyes also records in his diary that Mayne was dismissed from 11 Commando the following day, 23 June, but does not state that he was arrested.
From November 1941 through to the end of 1942 during the Western Desert Campaign, Mayne participated in numerous night raids deep behind enemy lines in the deserts of Egypt and Libya, where the SAS wrought havoc by destroying many enemy aircraft on the ground. Mayne pioneered the use of military jeeps to conduct surprise hit-and-run raids, particularly on Axis airfields. The National Army Museum stated that Mayne had "a personal tally of more than 100 aircraft destroyed."
The first successful raid at Wadi Tamet in Libya on 14 December 1941, where aircraft and petrol dumps were destroyed, helped keep the SAS in existence, following the failure of the previous initial raid behind enemy lines at Sirte. For his part in the Tamet raid Mayne was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Promoted to lieutenant after the second raid of Tamet on 27 December 1941, Mayne also received a mention in despatches on 24 February 1942.
Mayne's official report on the Tamet raid notes:
The following damage was done on or in the vicinity of the aerodrome: