Reg Seekings
As seen in SAS Rogue Heroes

As was detailed in his obituary, which is available on The Independent, Reg Seekings was born in Stuntney in 1920, and after leaving school he worked with his father on a local farm, to which the family cottage was tied.
He was almost blind in one eye, yet wanted to be a professional boxer. His plans were put on hold when, in 1940, along with his brother, he volunteered for part of Layforce in the Second World War.
After his troop were disbanded, he was recruited by David Stirling as one of the original members of L Detachment SAS Brigade.
Stirling explained his plan to form L Detachment SAS, and once he had it approved by his commander-in-chief, Claude Auchinleck, he arrived at Geneifa to recruit men from Layforce for his new brigade.
Seekings took part in their first airborne raid in November 1941, which failed, while his first successful raid was led by Paddy Mayne on Tamet, where they destroyed 24 German aircraft.
He and his brother continued to be key members of the SAS throughout their time in North Africa, and into their action in Sicily and Termoli.
In Termoli, Seekings was at the back of a truck that was hit by a shell strike. He somehow escaped practically unscathed, and went on to collect the dismembered limbs of those who had died in the strike. He made sure they belonged to the right body before each of those killed were laid to rest.
The scene in season 2 episode 4, in which Seekings is seen shooting a young boy to end his pain after he was gravely wounded, is based on fact.
Seekings later said of this incident: “Suddenly he [the boy] got up and ran around screaming. Terrible sight. There was absolutely no hope for him, and you couldn’t let anybody suffer like that. So I caught him, and I shot him.”
Seekings looked back on what he saw at Termoli years later, simply saying: “Termoli was bad, very bad.”
Seekings, along with his comrades, also took part in D-Day, landing by parachute. While in Normandy, he was hit in the back of the neck by a bullet which passed close to his spine. He carried the bullet in him throughout the remainder of the war.
What happened to the real-life Reg Seekings?

After the war, the SAS was disbanded in September 1945, and Seekings married Monica Smith in 1945.
They took over the pub in Ely for nine years, before moving to Southern Rhodesia, where Seekings set up a farm and became an inspector in the police’s Anti-Terrorist Unit.
In 1982, he and his wife moved back to England, settling in Suffolk. He died in 1999.