NOVEMBER 2001
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 27
'Paddy'Blair Mayne: Ulster's Forgotten Warrior
Some they went for glory Some they went for pillage Pillage was the motto Of the boys of Killyran - The Boys of Killyran-French
By S.D. KENNY At well over six-feet tall and weighing 217 pounds, with an unruly shock of red hair, Robert Blair Mayne looked more like a medieval Viking than an Ulster-man of his time. Born January 11, 1915, he was one of six children of William and Margaret Mayne.
His parents ran a family wine and grocery business in Newtownards County Down. Many of their customers were the local landed gentry, including Lord Londonderry who lived on the nearby Mountstewart estate.
Robert received his early schooling at Regent House Grammar School in Newtownards and went on to Queen's University in Belfast where he studied law. At Queens he also became an athlete of international status. At 18, he captained Newtownards Rugby Club. At 21, he was the Irish Universities heavyweight boxing champion. In 1937, he got the first of six caps for Ireland in a rugby match against Wales. In 1938, he toured South Africa with the British Lions Rugby Club.
Robert was also a member of the Queen's University Officer Training Corps. His report card from that sector was not quite so glowing. It read, "Unpromising material for a combat regiment. Undisciplined, unruly and generally unreliable."
In December 1938, Robert was sitting with a friend in a Belfast pub when he pulled out two crumpled army enlistment applications from his pocket. They filled them in and Robert stuffed them back into his pocket since he had neither an envelope nor stamps. The next weekend, while in Dublin for a rugby match, Robert came across the forms again and put them into a hotel envelope which he mailed - without a stamp!
Two weeks later, he was called up for service with Number Five Light Anti-Aircraft Battery, Newtownards. After a few mouths
of inaction he transferred to the Cameronian Regiment and left for England and more training. Another spell of inactivity was just too much for him and he now applied to join Number Eleven Scottish Commando. This was really the beginning of Mayne the soldier.
January 1941 found Number Eleven Commando on the North African Coast for desert training. After that, it was off to Syria for operations against the Vichy French under the collaborator Marshal Petain.
At about this time, a young Scottish Guards Officer named David Stirling (Number Eight Commando) was starting to have an idea about the "ideal fighting force" for this area of North Af-
He was well connected through his father, Brigadier General Archibald of Keir, a Minister of Parliament and the Deputy Lieutenant of Perthshire. His idea found good backing and good timing. The Commander-in-Chief Middle East Forces General Auchinleck liked it and proposed it to Winston Churchill. He liked it too.
The idea was for highly trained small specialized units, dropped behind enemy lines at night, to penetrate unseen and unsuspected into enemy airfields, petrol storage dumps, truck transport depots and railway yards. Once inside, they would set timed explosives and disappear back into the desert night before the first explosion. Later they would change from airdrops to travelling across the desert at night in specially equipped trucks.
In July 194-1 the Special Air Service was born. Paddy Mayne applied and was accepted. He was later to become Colonel Stirling's second in command. Paddy was a man with contrasting attributes. On the one hand he was gentle, caring and full of concern for the welfare of his men. However, he was also capable of outbursts of manic fury. He could be ruthless, quick tempered and even callous. He was given to bouts of heavy drinking.
His first raid with Number One SAS was on the joint German/Italian airfield at Tamet, midway between Tripoli and El Agheila. It was December 1941, one week after Pearl Harbor. The U.S. was now in the war. In Moscow, the Russians had launched a fierce counter-offensive, in minus 30 degree temperatures, against an exhausted German army.
This was the beginning of a new form of warfare. It continued for the next two years across the desert earning Paddy a DSO and three bars. It also enabled the British Eighth army to get the upper hand and finally crush German Field Marshal Rommel.
At the disbandment of his regiment in 1945, Paddy made a typically brief speech quoting The Boys of Killyran and going on to say, "We came to pillage but maybe we got a wee bit of glory as well." Paddy went back to a legal position in Newtownards but he never really settled into civilian life again.
On December 14, 1955, he drove to Bangor and played cards and drank with a friend. At around 4 AM the following morning, his little red Riley car struck a parked truck in Newtownards and he suffered a fractured skull, dying probably instantly. He was only a short distance from home.
The funeral took place on December 16, to Movilla Cemetery in his home town. It was attended by members of the legal profession, the rugby fraternity and old military colleagues as well as family and friends. Crowds lined the streets three deep.
Paddy rests now within the crumbled walls of a Thirteenth Century Abbey in County Down. His Valhalla.
Bibliography:
Bradford, Roy and Dillon, Martin -Rogue Warrior, Arrow Books, London 1987.
Cowles, Virginia - The Phantom Major, Grafton Books, London 1958.
Swinson, Arthur - The Raiders-Desert Strike Force, Ballantines Illustrated History of WW II, New York 1968.
NEW EXECUTIVE OF the Vancouver Shamrock Celtic Supporters Club: Joyce Gray, Secretary; Tommy McNeil, Bouncer; Robert Dick, Vice-President; Mick Madden, Trustee; John McCafferty, Trustee; John Ward, Treasurer; Jim Mathieson, President.
ROBERT DICK, Vice President of the Vancouver Shamrock Celtic Supporters with Celtic Goalkeeper Jonathan Gould at Ibrox as Celtic won.
3rieb Sport* artf Social Society Bmonton
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World Cup Qualifying Soccer - Thurs, Nov. 15th Time: 7:00 a.m. Sat, Nov 24th - Celtic Entertainer - JIM BRANNIGAN New Year's Tickets on Sale - Call the club for details
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Thurs Nov 22 • Valencia 11:45 a.m.
Sun Nov 25 - Rangers 4:00 a.m.
Nov 27 or 28 - League Cup 11:45 a.m. (TBC) December
Sat Dec1 • Hibs 7:00 a.m.
Thurs Dec6 - Valencia 11:45 a.m.
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Sat Dec 22 - Aberdeen 7:00 a.m.
Sat Dec 26 - Livingstone 7:00 a.m. TBC - To be confirmed
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REMEMBERANCE DAY - NOVEMBER 11 We Shall Remember Them
Service 10:30 a.m. prompt - Rev. Ross Manthorpe Sing-along at 4-8 p.m. with Greg Hampton
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