Cast of Operation Mincemeat unveil plaque and bench to Welsh hero Glyndwr Michael
Nation.Cymru staff
The touring cast of hit musical Operation Mincemeat made a very special stop in Cardiff to honour history’s unsung hero – Glyndwr Michael, the Welshman whose body served as the fictional Major William Martin during the real-life Operation Mincemeat.
Members of the cast currently playing at The New Theatre in the Welsh capital, were joined by a specially-formed choir made up of local and military community volunteers, including Cardiff Military Wives Choir, Cowbridge Male Voice Choir, St Patrick’s Church Choir and Choir for Good, for a very special rendition of ‘Sail On, Boys’ from the musical.
Members of the UK touring cast also started the day with a visit to Glyndwr Michael’s memorial in Aberbargoed to lay yellow roses for him.
Following the performance, David Cumming, one quarter of SpitLip, the writers and composers of Operation Mincemeat, unveiled a bench and plaque dedicated to Glyndwr’s memory in Alexandra Gardens, home to the Welsh National War Memorial.
David Cumming said: “Glyndwr Michael is at the heart of the true story of Operation Mincemeat, yet his own identity was almost lost behind the legend of Major William Martin. We wanted to honour him not just for the part his body played in the deception, but to recognise that he had a life and family of his own. To have this bench here in Cardiff, alongside the Welsh National War Memorial and in his home country, means a great deal to us. We hope it will help people remember Glyndwr and the part he played in Operation Mincemeat”
Operation Mincemeat is widely known for the extraordinary deception that helped pave the way for the Allied invasion of Sicily. In 1943, British intelligence officers used the body of the recently deceased man and created an elaborate false identity for him: Major William Martin, a Royal Marines officer carrying secret documents suggesting that the Allies intended to invade Greece rather than Sicily.
The body was transported by submarine to Spain, where the planted documents were recovered and ultimately passed to German intelligence. The deception contributed to German forces diverting troops towards Greece and Sardinia rather than concentrating them in Sicily, helping make the Allied invasion less perilous, and turning the tide of World War II.
For more than 50 years, the identity of the man behind ‘William Martin’ remained a secret. In 1996, historian Roger Morgan uncovered his identity in previously secret government records.
He was Glyndwr Michael, born in Aberbargoed, South Wales, in 1909. Glyndwr left the Welsh valleys for London during the hardship of the 1930s. He eventually fell into poverty and died in 1943, aged just 34, after being found seriously ill in an abandoned warehouse near King’s Cross.
His body was taken from a London morgue and transformed into ‘Major William Martin’, complete with a fictional identity and carefully planted personal possessions – including love letters, a photograph of his supposed fiancée and a receipt for a diamond engagement ring.
For decades, much of what was known about Glyndwr Michael came from the wartime intelligence files surrounding Operation Mincemeat. But a recent investigation by The Telegraph’s Patrick Sawer has shed new light on the man behind the legend, tracing his surviving family in South Wales and revealing family memories of Glyndwr sending money home from London to help his sister Gladys raise her son Dennis.
Today, Glyndwr is buried in Huelva, Spain, beneath a gravestone which reads:
‘Glyndwr Michael
Served as Major William Martin, RM’
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