He was an amateur boxing champion, qualified as a solicitor and was capped for Ireland and the British and Irish Lions at rugby union before becoming a founding member of the Special Air Service (SAS).

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

[11] 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".

[13] 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.

[20] Following Churchill's call to form a "butcher and bolt" raiding force following the Dunkirk evacuation, Mayne volunteered for the newly-formed No.

[24][full citation needed] 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.

[25] 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.

[28] Promoted to lieutenant after the second daring raid of Tamet on 27 December 1941, Mayne also received a mention in despatches on 24 February 1942.

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.

[32] The official citation reads as follows: On 10 July 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 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 to lieutenant-colonel and appointed commanding officer of the re-formed 1st SAS Regiment.

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.

[34] 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.

A citation, approved by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Allied 21st Army Group, was issued recommending Mayne for the Victoria Cross.

[37] Major General Sir Robert Laycock, post-War Chief of Combined Operations and former commander Special Service Brigade, wrote: I feel I must drop you a line just to tell you how very deeply I appreciate the great honour of being able to address, as my friend, an officer who has succeeded in accomplishing the practically unprecedented task of collecting no less than four DSOs (I am informed that there is another such superman in the Royal Air Force[a]).

An Early Day Motion was put before the House of Commons in June 2005, supported by more than 100 MPs, stating that: This House recognises the grave injustice meted out to Lt-Col. Paddy Mayne, of 1st SAS, who won the Victoria Cross at Oldenburg in North West Germany on 9th April 1945; notes that this was subsequently downgraded, some six months later, to a third Bar DSO, that the citation had been clearly altered and that David Stirling, founder of the SAS has confirmed that there was considerable prejudice towards Mayne and that King George VI enquired why the Victoria Cross had 'so strangely eluded him'; further notes that on 14th December it will be 50 years since Col. Mayne's untimely death, in a car accident, and this will be followed on 29th January 2006 by the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Royal Warrant to institute the Victoria Cross; and therefore calls upon the Government to mark these anniversaries by instructing the appropriate authorities to act without delay to reinstate the Victoria Cross given for exceptional personal courage and leadership of the highest order and to acknowledge that Mayne's actions on that day saved the lives of many men and greatly helped the Allied advance on Berlin.

[39]Whilst the UK Government declined to re-open the case, the Blair Mayne Association vows to continue campaigning for the Victoria Cross to be retrospectively conferred upon Lt-Col. R.B.

[45] On the night of Tuesday 13 December 1955, after attending a regular meeting of the Friendship Lodge, Mayne continued drinking with a fellow Freemason in the nearby town of Bangor, before driving home in the early hours.

Refused leave to attend his father's funeral in Newtownards, a story tells of Mayne embarking on a drinking binge and rampage in central Cairo with a view to finding and beating up Richard Dimbleby, so as to highlight the travesty.

[43] In 2003 a temporary British Army base in Kuwait, occupied by the First Battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment, was named after him: Camp Blair Mayne.

[52] In 2025 there were renewed calls for Mayne to be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for gallantry, for his repeated heroic and gallant actions, in the face of the enemy, during the Second World War.