The Dark Harvest Commando of the Scottish Citizen Army (DHC) was a militant group which in 1981 demanded that the British government decontaminate Gruinard Island, a site which had been used for anthrax weapon testing during World War II.
[1][2] The group identified itself as "Dark Harvest Commando" and claimed to include a "team of microbiologists from two universities" in Scotland.
In a message to the Glasgow Herald, the group said they had landed on the island with the aid of local people and removed 300 lb (140 kg) of soil contaminated with anthrax spores, to be placed around the UK.
[5] Five days later, a second container of soil was placed at Blackpool, a resort town where the Conservative Party was holding a conference presided over by Margaret Thatcher.
[4] In his novel The Impossible Dead (2011), author Ian Rankin, in addition to using the mysterious death of Willie McRae for his plot, also mentions the clandestine events surrounding the removal of contaminated soils from Gruinard Island by the Dark Harvest Commandos and the island's removal from maps by the British Government.