Glyndwr Michael

Glyndwr Michael (4 January 1909 – 24 January 1943)[1] was a Welsh homeless man whose body was used in Operation Mincemeat, the Second World War deception plan that lured German forces to Greece prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily. The invasion was a success although the extent to which this can be attributed to the ruse is unknown.

The corpse of Michael dressed as William Martin, April 1943

Life and death

Michael was born in Aberbargoed in Monmouthshire in south Wales. Before leaving the town, he held part-time jobs as a gardener and labourer. His father Thomas, a coal miner, killed himself when Michael was 15, and his mother died when he was 31. Homeless, friendless, depressed and with no money, Michael drifted to London where he lived on the streets.

He was found in an abandoned warehouse close to King's Cross, seriously ill from ingesting rat poison that contained phosphorus. Two days later, he died at age 34 in St. Pancras Hospital. His death may have been suicide although he may have simply been hungry, as the poison he ingested was a paste smeared on bread crusts to attract rats.[2]

Operation Mincemeat
Main article: Operation Mincemeat

After being ingested, phosphide reacts with hydrochloric acid in the stomach, generating phosphine, a highly toxic gas. Bentley Purchase, coroner of St Pancras District, explained, "This dose was not sufficient to kill him outright, and its only effect was so to impair the functioning of the liver that he died a little time afterwards". When Purchase obtained Glyndwr's body, it was identified as being in suitable condition for a man who would appear to have floated ashore several days after having died at sea by hypothermia and drowning.

Before Michael, finding a usable cadaver had been difficult, as indiscreet inquiries would cause talk, and it was impossible to tell a dead man's next of kin what the body was wanted for. The dead man's parents had died and no known relatives were found.[3] The body was released on the condition that the man's real identity would never be revealed. Ewen Montagu later claimed the man died from pneumonia, and that the family had been contacted and permission obtained, but neither of those claims was true.[4]

On 30 April, Lt. Norman Jewell, captain of the submarine HMS Seraph, read the 39th Psalm, and Michael's body was gently pushed into the sea where the tide, aided by the push of the submarine's propellers, would bring it ashore off Huelva on the Spanish Atlantic coast.

Grave of Glyndwr Michael in Huelva, Spain

Attached to Michael's body was a briefcase containing secret documents that had been fabricated by the British Security Service. The purpose was to make German intelligence (which was known to have operatives in Huelva) think Michael had been a courier delivering documents to a British general. The documents were crafted to deceive the Germans into thinking that the British were preparing to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than Sicily, and they succeeded in doing so.

Michael's body was picked up by a fisherman and he was buried, with full military honours, as Major William Martin. His grave, No.1886, is in the San Marco section of the cemetery of Nuestra Señora, in Huelva, Spain. The headstone reads:

William Martin, born 29 March 1907, died 24 April 1943, beloved son of John Glyndwyr Martin and the late Antonia Martin of Cardiff, Wales, Dulce et Decorum est pro Patria Mori, R.I.P.[5]

The Latin phrase translates as "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." In 1998, the British Government revealed the body's true identity. A new inscription was added to the gravestone:

Glyndwr Michael Served as Major William Martin, RM[6][7]

A plaque commemorating Glyndwr Michael has been added to the war memorial in Aberbargoed. It is headed "Y Dyn Na Fu Erioed" (translation – "The Man Who Never Was").

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References
  1. "CWGC Casualty Details". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  2. Macintyre, Ben (2010). Operation Mincemeat: The True Spy Story that Changed the Course of World War II, Chapter 5. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1408812587.
  3. Macintyre, Ben (14 January 2010). "Operation Mincemeat: full story of how corpse tricked the Nazis". The Times.
  4. Pukas, Anna (15 January 2010). "The Real Man Who Never Was". allbusiness.com. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  5. Ben Macintyre, Operation Mincemeat; How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, Harmony Books, Chapter 8
  6. "CWGC Certificate". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. 2011. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
  7. "Operation Mincemeat". BBC Two. 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.

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