Hope for Blair Mayne posthumous gallantry award after Commons debate: Body to check into why Co Down war hero was denied Victoria Cross

That’s the result of a House of Commons debate on Lt Col ‘Paddy’ Mayne today (8th), brought by Strangford MP Jim Shannon.

After hearing the DUP man’s impassioned plea for the Sec​ond World War hero and SAS pioneer to be given the medal he was denied in life, Veterans Minister Alistair Carns announced he would get an independent committee to investigate why the VC Blair Mayne was cited for in 1945 was instead downgraded to a third bar on his Distinguished Service Order.

The reason for that downgrade has never been made clear. Mr Shannon today suggested it happened due to a clerical error; if that’s the case, there’s no time limit on rectifying that mistake, meaning Lt Col Mayne could finally get the gallantry honour he was denied, 80 years after the end of the war and 70 years since his untimely death in a car accident.

Stating he would ask the independent Honours and Awards Committee to probe the situation, Mr Carns said: “Once the decision is found by that independent body, it will be finalised.

“I think that will provide an answer once and for all on ‘Paddy’ Mayne’s service and, indeed, how it was recognised.”

Stating that he would bring the committee’s findings back to the House of Commons, the Minister also described Lt Col Mayne as “one of the greatest from our greatest generation”, adding: “He is not only a hero within his regiment, but a national hero.”

Mr Carns did state, however, that surviving paperwork implies that the decision to downgrade Blair Mayne’s award to a third DSO bar “passed through the correct chain of command and [was] properly considered by a succession of senior officers, all of whom were experienced”.

Kicking off the debate this afternoon, Mr Shannon said the SAS pioneer had been a boyhood hero of his, and many of his chums growing up in Mayne’s home town of Newtownards.

“His story is the stuff of which legends are made, legends we know to be true,” the DUP MP stated. “A hero many times over.”

Mr Shannon claimed the VC was downgraded as part of the citation that talked of Mayne’s “signal act of gallantry” was incorrectly recorded as a “single act”.

“It appears an alteration resulted in Mayne being stripped of the award,” said the MP.

“I have seen the evidence that he was supposed to get the Victoria Cross. A team of historians have been working hard and sourcing documents; I made them available to the Minister.

"The difference is in that wording. The denial was based in a procedural error; a wrongdoing that needs to be addressed. We are simply asking for an error to be corrected in this case, specifically, singly.”

His call was supported by MPs from across the UK and from all main parties, with Northern Irish backing from the DUP’s Carla Lockhart and Ulster Unionist Robin Swann.

Mrs Lockhart stated Blair Mayne’s bravery is “etched into the DNA of British special forces”, while Mr Swann said: “Some might say that it’s too late, that we can’t rewrite history – but this is not about rewriting history, it’s about righting a wrong.”