He is portrayed by Val Kilmer in The Ghost and The Darkness (1996).
He was born and raised in Ballymahon, County Longford, Ireland.
In the First World War, Patterson was the commander of the Jewish Legion, the first Jewish fighting force in nearly two millennia, which would later be the foundation for the Israeli Defense Forces.
Due to his work with Jewish soldiers, he has been described as the godfather of the Israeli Defense Forces.