Paddy Mayne: Who was the SAS founder from Newtownards?

After the war, Mayne returned to Newtownards.

In December 1955, he attended a Masonic function and then had drinks in Bangor. In the early hours of the morning, he was involved in a car crash and died. He was 40 years old.

Mayne subsequently gained a reputation as a hellraiser – both for some of his alleged conduct away from the battlefield and his lifestyle in post-war Northern Ireland.

“Every time Paddy Mayne lost one of his men it hurt him, it affected him deeply, he endeavoured to bring every man out alive and, of course, sometimes he failed and he found it very difficult,” Mr Lewis said.

“I believe that’s part of the reason he had a troubled life after the war.”

Mr Lewis said an expert on PTSD who had read his books told him that “one of those missions is enough to give you terrible trauma – five years of missions behind enemy lines it’s impossible you would not come back plagued by PTSD”.

Almost 70 years after his death, Mayne remains, for many, a fascinating and complex figure.

“If you tried to write a fictional figure for Hollywood you could not make Paddy Mayne up,” Mr Lewis said.