Mayne, Robert Blair, “Paddy”.

Mayne, Robert Blair “Paddy”  born on 25-08-1915, in Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, the third son and sixth of seven children of a staunch Presbyterian family of Scottish extraction, among whom was Sir William Mayne. His father, was William Mayne, who was 39 and his mother, Margaret Boyle Vance, who was 39. He registered for military service in 1939.  The Maynes became prominent in Ulster as merchants and landowners, owning several retail businesses in County Down. Descended from the Boyles and the O’Neills, Mayne was christened Robert Blair after a second cousin, Lieutenant Claude Leslie Blair MC, who at the time of his birth was serving with the Royal Engineers in the First World War. Claude 16 juni 1917 (30-31) in France, he died in WWI when his trench was shelled. The family home, Mount Pleasant House, was situated on the hills above Newtownards.  Mayne attended Regent House Grammar School. 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 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. Robert 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′ 3″ tall and weighed 15.5 stone.

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. Returning home from South Africa, he joined Malone RFC in Belfast.

While touring South Africa with the British & Irish Lions in 1938, 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.

In February 1939, prior to the outbreak of the World War II, Mayne joined the 4 Bn (Extra Reserve) Royal Irish Rifles at Newtownards before receiving, the following month, a commission in the Royal Artillery and was posted to 5 Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, in 8 Anti-Aircraft Regiment, later . When 5 LAA Battery was assigned to 9 Anti-Aircraft Regiment (later 9 (Londonderry) Heavy AA 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 Rifle, nicknamed “The Stickies”,

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 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 Richard Robert Newsham “Dick” Pedder, Highland Light Infantry, who was killed in action Monday, June 9, 1941. Mayne played a distinguished part in the raid, being mentioned in despatches.

Mayne’s name was recommended to Captain Stirling Sir Archibald David “The Phantom Major”. by his friend Lieutenant Eoin McGonigal, 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. A hand-written entry in Keyes’ personal diary states that he was not at 11 Commando officers’ mess at Salamis on Cyprus on the evening of 21-06-1941, the date on which Mayne was accused of beating up a fellow officer, Major Charles Napier.

Lieutenant-Colonel Keyes had stayed the night elsewhere, and arrived at Salamis the following day, 22-06-1941, when the trouble was already over. Keyes states in his diary that he conducted an investigation and found Mayne responsible. Lieutenant Eoin McGonigal died Tuesday, 18-11-1941, age 20, in action or died of wounds

Keyes’ diary makes it clear that Mayne was brought before the divisional commander, 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 many 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. It was claimed that he had personally destroyed up to 100 aircraft.

The first successful raid at Wadi Tamet in Libya on 14-12-1941, 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 awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO).  Promoted Lieutenant after the second daring raid of Tamet on 27-12-1941, Mayne also received a mention in despatches on 24-02-1942.

The following damage was done on or in the vicinity of the aerodrome:(a) Bombs were placed on 14 aircraft;(b) 10 aircraft were damaged by having instrument panels destroyed;(c) Bomb and petrol dumps were blown up;(d) Reconnaissance was made down to the seafront but only empty huts were found;(e) Several telephone poles were blown up;(f) Some Italians were followed, and the hut they came out of was attacked by sub-machine gun and pistol fire and bombs were placed on and around it. There appeared to be roughly thirty inhabitants. Damage inflicted unknown.

Mayne took part in the most successful SAS raid of the Desert War when, on the night of 26-07-1942, with eighteen armed jeeps, he and Stirling raided the Sidi Haneish Airfield. Avoiding detection, they destroyed up to 40 German aircraft escaping with the loss of only three jeeps and two men killed in action.

Following Stirling’s capture in January 1943, 1st SAS Regiment was reorganised into two separate parts, the Special Raiding Squadron (SRS) and the Special Boat Section (the forerunner of the Special Boat Service). As a Major, Mayne was appointed to command the Special Raiding Squadron and led the unit in Sicily and Italy until the end of 1943. In Sicily, Mayne was awarded a Bar to his DSO. The official citation reads as follows:

On 10-07-1943, Major Mayne carried out two successful operations, the first the capture of CD battery the outcome of which was vital to the safe landing of 13 Corps. By nightfall SRS had captured three additional batteries, 450 prisoners, as well as killing 200 to 300 Italians. The second operation was to capture and hold of the town of Augusta. The landing was carried out in daylight – a most hazardous combined operation. By the audacity displayed, the Italians were forced from their positions and masses of stores and equipment were saved from enemy demolition. In both these operations it was Major Mayne’s courage, determination and superb leadership which proved the key to success. He personally led his men from landing craft in the face of heavy machine-gun fire. By this action, he succeeded in forcing his way to ground where it was possible to form up and sum up the enemy’s defences.

In January 1944 Mayne was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel and appointed commanding officer of the re-formed 1st SAS Regiment. He subsequently led the SAS with great distinction and valour through the final campaigns of the war in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Norway, often campaigning alongside local resistance fighters including the French Maquis. In recognition of his leadership and personal disregard for danger while in France, where he trained and worked closely with the French Resistance, Mayne received a second Bar to his DSO. The official citation stated:

Lieutenant-Colonel. R.B. Mayne DSO has commanded 1 SAS Regiment throughout the period of operations in France. On 08-08-1944, he was dropped to Operation Houndsworth base, located west of Dijon, in order to co-ordinate and take charge of the available detachments of his Regiment and co-ordinate their activities with a major Airborne landing which was then envisaged near Paris. He then proceeded in a jeep in daylight to motor to the GAIN base making the complete journey in one day. On the approach of Allied Forces, he passed through the lines in his jeep to contact the American Forces and to lead back through the lines his detachment of twenty jeeps landed for Operation WALLACE. During the next few weeks, he successfully penetrated the German and American lines on four occasions in order to lead parties of reinforcements. It was entirely due to Lieutenant-Colonel Mayne’s fine leadership and example, and his utter disregard for danger, that the unit was able to achieve such striking successes.

During the course of the War Mayne became one of the British Army’s most highly decorated soldiers receiving the DSO with three Bars.

In April 1945, Mayne led two armoured jeep squadrons through the front lines toward Oldenburg in Operation Howard, the last one of its type in the war. He rescued his wounded men and eliminated a German machine-gun position in a local village. A citation, approved by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery,   commander of the Allied 21st Army Group, was issued recommending Mayne for the Victoria Cross.

The success of his mission to clear a path for the 4th Canadian (Armoured) Division   under command of Major-General Christopher “Chris” Vokes

 and sow disorganisation among the enemy was due to his “brilliant military leadership and cool calculating courage” and a “single act of bravery” which “drove the enemy from a strongly held key village thereby breaking the crust of the enemy defences in the whole of this sector.” However, in a standard practice of the time, the award was downgraded to a lesser award, and Mayne instead received a third Bar to the DSO (in other words, a fourth award of the DSO).

Death and burial ground of Mayne, Robert Blair, “Paddy”.

Recruited in 1945 by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, he was appointed Deputy Expedition Leader, under Surgeon Captain Edward Bingham, to the Falkland Islands, Deception Island and Port Lockroy.

Mayne returned to Newtownards first practising as a solicitor and then becoming Secretary to the Law Society of Northern Ireland. Robert suffered severe back pain which prevented him even watching rugby as a spectator. He seldom talked about his wartime exploits.

On the night of Tuesday 13-12-1955, age 40, after attending a regular meeting of the Friendship Lodge, Mayne continued drinking with a fellow mason in the nearby town of Bangor, before driving home in the early hours. At about 04:00 he was found dead in his Riley roadster in Mill Street, Newtownards, reportedly having collided with a farmer’s vehicle.

At his funeral, hundreds turned out to pay their respects before his burial in the Mayne family plot at Old Movilla Abbey churchyard.[47] After his death, his masonic jewel was preserved for many years by an old schoolfriend before being presented to Newtownards Borough Council where it is displayed in the Mayoral Chamber at Ards and North Down Council Offices.[48] Blair Mayne Road in the town was later named in his honour and, in 1997, a statue was dedicated to him outside Newtownards Town Hall.

In 1997, a statue at Conway Square outside Newtownards Town Hall was dedicated in the presence of an S.A.S. guard of honour. Paddy’s legend lives on both in his home country and around the world. A mural dedicated to his memory stands at the junction of Queen Street and Upper Movilla Street in Newtownards. A road in the town is named in his honour, although plans to rename the local leisure centre sparked controversy.

Mayne, Robert Blair, “Paddy” IS BURIED AT Movilla Abbey in Newtownards, Co. Down. 63 Movilla Road, Newtownards BT23 8EZ, Unitred Kingdom.

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