Glyndwr Michael

Who is Glyndwr Michael?

Glyndwr Michael was a semi-literate homeless man whose body was used in Operation Mincemeat, the successful World War II deception plan that lured German forces to Greece prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily. The invasion was a success, with Allied losses numbering several thousand fewer than would have been expected had the deception plan failed.

Michael was born in Aberbargoed in Wales and had had part-time jobs as a gardener and labourer. His father Thomas, a coal miner, committed suicide when Michael was fifteen years old; his mother later died when he was thirty-one. Michael, homeless, friendless, depressed and with no money, drifted to London where he lived on the streets. His body was found in an abandoned warehouse close to King's Cross, seriously ill from ingesting rat poison that contained phosphorus. He died at age 34 in St Pancras Hospital two days later. This may have been suicide, although an alternate theory suggested he may have simply been desperately trying to scrounge something to eat, as the particular poison he ingested was a paste smeared on bread crusts to attract rats.

After being ingested, phosphide reacts with hydrochloric acid in the stomach, generating phosphine, a highly toxic gas. Coroner Bentley Purchase 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”, leaving few clues to the cause of death. When Purchase, coroner of St. Pancras District in London, obtained Glyndwr's body, it was identified as in suitable condition for a man who would appear to have floated ashore several days after having died at sea by hypothermia and drowning.