A prized dagger which is said to have belonged to a founding member of the SAS has emerged for sale for £7,000.
American-born Major Charles ‘Pat’ Riley, who was played by actor Jacob Ifan in the hit BBC series SAS: Rogue Heroes, was one of the elite soldiers who formed what was then the L Detachment Special Air Service Brigade in 1941.
He fought alongside the legendary Paddy Mayne and carried the lethal weapon behind enemy lines during sabotage missions against the Germans and Italians.
His Fairbairn Sykes commando knife, which has a 7ins double-edged blade, is etched with the words ‘F-S Fighting Knife’ and has a brown leather sheath.
It would have been used by Major Riley during heartpounding close quarters combat.
Major Riley’s dagger has remained in his family for more than 80 years but is now being sold by his granddaughter at auctioneers Bishop & Miller, of Stowmarket, Suffolk.
The vendor said her mother kept it under her mattress before she inherited it five years ago.
Paul Walsham, militaria and medals specialist at Bishop & Miller, said: ‘This Fairbairn Sykes knife is iconic in its own right as a symbol of the British commandos and special forces in the Second World War.
A prized dagger which belonged to a founding member of the SAS and was kept under a mattress has emerged for sale for £7,000
Major Charles ‘Pat’ Riley, who was played by actor Jacob Ifan in the hit BBC series SAS: Rogue Heroes, was one of the elite soldiers who formed what was then the L Detachment Special Air Service Brigade in 1941
‘It was likely carried by Pat Riley during some of the seminal operations of the fledgling Special Air Service Regiment.
‘Pat Riley was one of the original founding members of ‘L’ Detachment, SAS Brigade, formed by David Stirling, a small formation, later expanded to a strength of five regiments due to the success of those early pioneers.
‘Riley, characterised by his guts and determination never to give up, whatever the odds, is an absolute legend in the annals of the Special Air Service Regiment and his legacy survives to this day.’
Major Riley, who was born in the US state of Wisconsin in 1915, moved at the age of seven with his family to Haltwhistle, Cumbria.
He joined the Coldstream Guards in 1939 and was sent to the Western Desert in Egypt in 1941.
He and three comrades paved the way for formation of the SAS when they launched a surprise raid by going under the wire and infiltrating the enemy position with great success.
The quartet became known as the Tobruk Four and were asked to join the SAS by legendary Colonel Sir David Stirling.
In January 1942 Colonel Stirling identified Bouerat Harbour as an important location to supply Rommel’s forces and tasked the L Detachment with blowing up enemy ships, petrol dumps and tankers.
His Fairbairn Sykes commando knife, which has a 7ins double-edged blade, is etched with the words ‘F-S Fighting Knife’ and has a brown leather sheath
Major Riley’s dagger has remained in his family for more than 80 years but is now being sold by his granddaughter at auctioneers Bishop & Miller, of Stowmarket, Suffolk
The raiding party consisted of 16 men split into two groups, with Maj Riley leading one of them.
As they made their way to Bouerat, his men were spotted by an enemy plane and shot at, with rocks they were hiding behind being shattered into tiny pieces.
After being sited the group were subjected to bombing and strafing by more planes for several hours but escaped unscathed.
Undaunted, Maj Riley led his six men into Bouerat at just after midnight on January 23 and they had two hours to carry out the mission, setting the explosives for 2.30am.
Their biggest feat was attaching bombs to 18 large petrol carriers that were full with tens of thousands of gallons of fuel.
At 2.30am, while the raiding party made their escape, the desert sky lit up from the explosions.
As they sped off into the night in a truck they were ambushed by four Italian guards who peppered the vehicle with machine gun fire at point-blank range.
The truck driver ploughed through the bullets and mowed down the guards in the process.
Other lots in the sale include Major Riley in later life and an order of service for a thanksgiving service following his death in 1999
Major Riley’s recommendation for the DCM was published in the London Gazette in November 1942.
It read: ‘By skilled and daring leadership he succeeded in bluffing the enemy sentries. Thereby he avoided giving any alarm which would have interfered with the work of other parties operating in the same area. He has shown the greatest gallantry and the highest qualities of leadership.’
In September 1943, the SAS landed at Bagnara on the Italian mainland, securing a bridgehead for the main landing.
The raid on Termoli was followed by fierce fighting with German troops from the 16th Panzer Division.
With complete carnage raging in the town Paddy Mayne decided at this point to engage in a game of billiards in an abandoned palazzo with Maj Riley, Bill Frazer and Phil Gunn.
Major Riley later recalled: ‘He just carried on with the game, I thought to myself, Well if you can do it chum, I’ll do it with you. And we did.
‘We finished the game, and then went outside to get things sorted.’
Major Riley left the Army in 1945 and joined Cambridgeshire police but found it too sedate and so volunteered as a Captain with the Malayan Regiment.
He was based in the Far East until 1959.
After leaving the Army again, he ran the Dolphin Hotel pub in Colchester, Essex, and then retired to Hastings, East Sussex in 1980.
His wife, Kaye, died in 1996 and he passed away in 1999 aged 84.
The vendor, in a letter of provenance, said: ‘Many years ago my Granddad Pat gave the knife to my mother who always kept it under her mattress.’
The sale takes place on Wednesday.
