Archive of SAS Founder Blair 'Paddy' Mayne Remains Closed to Public
An archive containing the belongings of Special Air Service (SAS) founder Blair 'Paddy' Mayne remains inaccessible to the public.
The curator of the collection, David McCallion, described the situation as a "complete nightmare."
The War Years Remembered collection operates as a not-for-profit charity but has been unable to secure accreditation as a museum.
The Department for Communities (DfC) stated that only accredited museums are eligible to apply for funding through its open grant schemes.
"Departmental officials and NI Museums Council staff met War Years Remembered in August 2025 and provided a range of advice regarding a possible route to accreditation,"a spokesperson said.
McCallion told NI that the building housing the collections, a warehouse in Newtownards, requires significant renovation.
"They point blankly said that they couldn't give us any money because we weren't an accredited museum,"he said.
"That's chicken and egg as far as the volunteers and everybody else is concerned.
All we want to do is get back into the public domain, and make the collection accessible to the public again.
It's just been a complete nightmare for everybody."
Who was Blair 'Paddy' Mayne?
Blair Mayne attended Regent House School in Newtownards before studying law at Queen's University Belfast. He volunteered for military service at the outset of World War Two.
He was among the founding members of the SAS and led a mission in November 1941 that marked the unit's first major success: an attack on an Axis airfield in Libya that resulted in the destruction of dozens of enemy aircraft.
In January 1943, Mayne assumed command of the SAS and led operations in Sicily before the SAS participated in the Allied invasion of Normandy and the advance into Germany.
His portrayal in the BBC drama SAS Rogue Heroes generated controversy.
What items are in the archive?
The Blair Mayne archive includes his SAS uniform, medals, and his wartime trunk bearing his Newtownards address on the lid.
Also preserved are certificates related to some of his awards, such as the Distinguished Service Order and the Legion d'Honneur.
Much of the archive's material has never been publicly displayed.
The collection also contains a journal Mayne kept during a post-war expedition with the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey to Antarctica.
"Blair was not just, as people will know, an elite warrior, he was a solicitor, secretary of the law society, elite sportsman,"McCallion said.
"There's everything from his early days of rugby, the British Lions tour of 1938, as well as personal family stuff.
It has mostly his items but it also has other members of the Mayne family that served."
Why can't the collection be made public?
The warehouse housing the collections requires extensive renovation and curation work.
McCallion explained that the volunteers managing the charity "didn't to take on the stress of fighting to keep a building open" or "giving their time and feeling worthless for."
"The collection is not getting properly conserved at the minute, which is another worrying factor,"he said.
"We're tourism, we're education, we've had coaches with people coming from the [cruise] boats, we've had Americans come and visit because of the Irish-American connection.
We also tell the story of the Polish, the Americans, the Gibraltarian refugees that were here during the war and even the Kinderfarm at Millisle.
All we want to do is make sure it's back in the public domain."
North Down MP Alex Easton has written to Northern Ireland Secretary Hillary Benn, inviting him to visit the War Years Remembered collection and assess what government support might be available to secure its future.
"This is not just a local museum, it is a collection of national and international significance,"Easton said.
"A collection of this importance should not be left struggling."
Ards and North Down Borough Council has previously awarded a £50,000 grant to War Years Remembered.
What have officials said?
A DfC spokesperson noted that the Northern Ireland Museums Council (NIMC) is the lead body supporting local museums and can assist private collectors in obtaining accreditation through a UK-wide scheme.
"Accreditation provides assurance that a museum's collections are being managed properly and in line with the sector's standards,"they said.
"All local museums which attain this standard and are members of the Council are eligible to apply for funding to any of its open grant schemes."
The spokesperson added that departmental officials and NIMC staff met with War Years Remembered in August 2025 and "provided a range of advice" concerning a possible route to accreditation.
In a statement, NIMC director Heather McGuicken said that currently, grant funding is only available to accredited museums, and the amount distributed to the sector is limited.
"Unfortunately, we do not have the remit or the funding to extend this to non-accredited museums,"she said.
"I did meet Mr McCallion and some of the volunteers on site on the 29 August 2025 and discussed with them NIMCs limitations with regards to funding but offered to work with them regarding the possibilities of getting accredited status and the areas the scheme requires including organisational health, collections care and management, users and their experiences.
NIMC is more than happy to help them go through the application step by step, but we need them to start the process.
We cannot provide funding for them to open, unfortunately, but there are many other ways we can help."
