A former SAS soldier who stormed the Iranian Embassy in 1980 has found a home after being left penniless and homeless.
Bob Curry, 64, was hailed as a war hero having served as a sergeant in the elite force, but claims he was left without somewhere to live as Herefordshire County Council failed to find him housing.
The authority said he had ‘not provided all the documentation needed to legally register for housing’, and has turned down accommodation which has been offered, but top-selling author Andy McNab picked up on his plight and launched a petition.
After 400,000 signed it, the local authority put the veteran on the housing list, and has now been given a bungalow in Hereford.
Bob Curry, 64, was forced to ask for help from the SAS after Herefordshire Council failed to provide any accommodation
SAS hero Bob Curry is pictured in his SAS days, during which he saw action in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland
Former SAS soldier Andy McNab, pictured, has urged Herefordshire County Council to find a suitable home for Bob Curry who is currently living in B&B paid for by the regiment
Mr Curry, who is registered disabled, told The Sun he accepted the house immediately and added: ‘I’m over the moon. The bungalow is perfect for me.’
McNab, himself a former SAS serviceman, started the petition on Charge.org calling for a suitable, permanent property to be given to Mr Curry.
It garnered thousands of signatures an hour and on the fundraising page the author said: ‘After his small business failed, this proud veteran lost his home and his way. He is not getting the help he needs from the authorities.
‘Instead he is reliant on handouts from the SAS Regimental Association who are paying for him to live in a B&B.’
Mr Curry was part of the team that brought the six-day siege to an end after a group of six men stormed the embassy and took 26 people hostage.
The 64-year-old said he was B&B after he split up with his partner of 25 years and his business collapsed last year.
He said he was told by Herefordshire Council to fill in forms for a council house in November but is still waiting to hear if he meets the criteria, The Sun reported.
Mr Curry told the newspaper he hated going ‘cap in hand’ to his local authority to ask for help, but he had ‘no choice’.
In a statement the council said it was continuing to work with Mr Curry to help him ‘secure appropriate housing’.
‘Unfortunately, to date the individual has not provided all the documentation needed to legally register for housing,’ the authority said.
‘However, regardless of this, the council’s housing team has found and offered two different forms of accommodation, in areas which were agreeable to the individual, but which have subsequently been turned down.’
But the local authority has now found a suitable home for Mr Curry.
Mr Curry stormed the Iranian Embassy during the iconic 1980 raid but is now living in a B&B because the council cannot find him a home
Former sergeant Trevor Coult, who was awarded the Military Cross in 2006 for his bravery in a machine-gun ambush involving suicide bombers and gunmen in Baghdad, was made aware of his plight.
He earlier told the Mail: ‘This hero abseiled in and went through one of the windows with a charge and cleared rooms.
‘He eliminated targets in the Iranian embassy.
‘It is a disgrace this veteran is not being looked after. If we can’t sort out these veterans in Hereford, where they lived, then what hope is there for other heroes?’
It is understood the regiment had been paying for the B&B for around a month.
In 2015 the SAS veteran put his medals up for sale for £25,000 so they could be enjoyed by collectors.
Fellow veteran Trevor Coult, a recipient of the Military Cross, revealed the soldier’s plight in a tweet today, provoking the anger or many other social media users
He was one of the first to break into the besieged London building in May 1980 after 26 people were held hostage by six armed Iranian dissidents.
The special forces soldier, aged 27 at the time, was watched by millions of TV news viewers as he smashed open a window with a sledgehammer, allowing his colleagues to sensationally storm the building.
The 11-minute mission, which became a seminal moment in SAS history, was ordered by home secretary William Whitelaw on the sixth day of the siege after the terrorists shot dead a member of staff before dumping his body outside the embassy.
As millions of Britons watched the drama unfold, Curry ran towards the building, despite the risk that a failed explosive which was due to blow open a way into the embassy could still go off.
He then kicked the charge out of the way, smashed the window and was the first to climb inside.
The Iranian embassy siege: The day the SAS emerged from the shadows
The siege began when a group of six gunmen stormed into the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London, on April 30th 1980.
They took mostly embassy staff hostage but among them was BBC sound recordist Sim Harris who was at the embassy to get a visa.
PC Trevor Locke, a member of the diplomatic protection squad and on duty at the building, was also among those held at gunpoint.
The terrorists demanded the release of prisoners in Khuzestan Province in southern Iran during a series of tense negotiations with the police who sealed off the embassy and surrounding streets. The gunmen also demanded safe passage out of the Britain.
The veteran was among those who took part in the famous SAS raid of the Iranian embassy in 1980
After becoming frustrated with the lack of progress over five days they shot one of the hostages and threw his body out of the embassy.
The death was the signal for the SAS – motto Who Dares Wins – to be sent in.
The SAS teams, who had arrived secretly in London from their Hereford base, were given permission by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to carry out a rescue mission given the code name Operation Nimrod.
On the evening of May 5th TV news cut into normal programming to broadcast the beginning of the end of the siege as the SAS soldiers all clad in black abseiled down the front of the building.
Millions watched in awe as they tossed stun grenades into the building to begin their assault.
BBC cameraman Sim Harris was captured scurrying to safety, jumping over a balcony, while smoke billowed from the building after a curtain caught fire.
What was unseen by cameras were the other teams – including Horsfall and Firmin – sweeping through the building in a race to free the hostages before they were shot.
The raid lasted just 17 minutes and all but one of the six gunmen were shot and killed.
A second hostage was shot dead by the gunmen and two others seriously wounded.
The televised raid was the first time the British public had ever seen the Special Forces soldiers in action and elevated them to superstar status.
Fawsi Najad, the surviving gunman, was jailed for life and freed in 2008 after serving 27 years. He was granted leave to remain in the UK.
His heroic actions allowed a crack squad of four SAS soldiers to enter the rear of the building in South Kensington and clear the ground floor and the cellar.
Five gunmen were killed and one was arrested. Although one hostage died, 19 were freed.
Afterwards, one SAS hero was awarded the George Medal and four others were given the Queen’s Gallantry Medal but Curry was not one of them.
He did however earn campaign medals for his service in Northern Ireland and the Falklands War.
It is understood he was made homeless after he split from his wife last year and contacted the council asking for accommodation.
He asked five times, it was claimed, but they offered him two homes which allegedly he claims were not suitable.
The televised raid was the first time the British public had ever seen the Special Forces soldiers in action and elevated them to superstar status
Mr Curry was born in Cambridgeshire in 1953 and enlisted in the Royal Anglian Regiment as a 15 year-old junior soldier in 1968.
After serving in Northern Ireland, he passed the tough selection course for the SAS in 1979, training as an assault team member specialising in storming buildings held by terrorists.
After the Iranian Embassy siege he served with the SAS in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland.
Discharged in 1985, he spent three years working for the Al Fayed family, including one year as the personal bodyguard of Dodi Al Fayed, later killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in a Paris car crash.
SAS veteran was forced to put his medals up for sale for £25,000
As millions of Britons watched the drama unfold, Curry ran towards the building, despite the risk that a failed explosive which was due to blow open a way into the embassy could still go off.
He then kicked the charge out of the way, smashed the window and was the first to climb inside.
Curry’s heroic actions allowed a crack squad of four SAS soldiers to enter the rear of the building in South Kensington and clear the ground floor and the cellar.
Five gunmen were killed and one was arrested. Although one hostage died, 19 were freed.
Mr Curry (far right) led the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980, after six gunmen took hostages
Afterwards, one SAS hero was awarded the George Medal and four others were given the Queen’s Gallantry Medal but Curry was not one of them.
He did however earn campaign medals for his service in Northern Ireland and the Falklands War.
The items, which were sold alongside his SAS beret, his belt and his winged badge, made around £25,000 in auction.
Included in the auction were several photos of Curry in action during the siege with a dedication written on them by ‘Soldier I’ – fellow SAS soldier Pete Winner.