Unique SAS archive is up for sale with Herefordshire dealer

The collection consists of WWII medals and SAS Certificate of Service signed by Lieutenant Colonel Paddy Mayne (who featured in the BBC's Rogue Heroes), an original photograph album, SAS badges, cloth patches, service books and two volumes of wartime poetry, adorned with hand-drawn colour images to the front covers.

The extensive archive was acquired from a Derbyshire auction house, which had bought the collection from Hutchinson's grandson.

A unique SAS archive will be sold by War & Son, specialist military antique dealers in Leominster

The unique books of poetry detail Hutchinson's perspective on the SAS exploits, with poems entitled 'A Salute to Those Who Formed the SAS' and 'The Gates of Benghazi' dated from September 1942, right through North Africa, Italy, France and a taste of home life within the famous regiment in Darvel, Scotland.

The photograph album contains rare and unseen images of the SAS in the Second World War, including Lt-Col Paddy Mayne, one of the original members of the SAS.

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In the early part of 1944, Hutchinson was stationed in Darvel in Scotland with men of the 1st Special Air Service Regiment under the command of Lt Col Robert Blair (Paddy) Mayne. Hutchinson’s poems from this period describe home life within Britain’s elite unit, with ‘Darvel’, ‘An Ode to The Black Bull’, ‘A Visit to the SAS’ and ‘In Darvel Town there is a Girl’.

A unique SAS archive will be sold by War & Son, specialist military antique dealers in Leominster

Gerald Hutchinson was born in Northumberland in 1922, the son of Thomas and Isabella Hutchinson. Enlisting at Barrack Road, Newcastle on May 3, 1939, Hutchinson’s Certificate of Service signed by Lt Col Robert Blair Mayne records him as serving ‘in the 1st Special Air Service Regiment from 5 July 1942 to 16 Nov 1945’. Hutchinson’s Soldier’s Service & Pay Book lists him as ‘Qualifying as a Parachutist’ on March 9 1943 and as 'Privileged to wear Operational Wings of SAS on breast, permission granted by C.O. on August 7 1943', having served in North Africa and Italy.

After the war, Hutchinson re-enlisted with the Territorials, undergoing a second part of his parachute training and joining the Army Ski Association on November 9, 1950. Hutchinson subsquently emigrated to Canada to work as a miner, and in 1987 worked with author Roy Bradford with his profiling of Paddy Mayne for his book, Rogue Warrior of the SAS: The Blair Mayne Legend. He died, aged 67, in 1989.

The unique historical archive will be offered for sale at £17,500 from War & Son’s antiques shop in Leominster from Tuesday, July 31.