William Martin (Royal Marines officer)

Major William Martin was a persona invented by British Military Intelligence for Operation Mincemeat, the Second World War deception plan that lured German forces to Greece prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Also known as "the man who never was", Martin's personal details were created to lend credence to the scheme, which involved a body, dressed as a British officer and carrying secret documents, washing up on shores of neutral Spain, apparently the victim of an air crash.

It was intended that these documents, containing information that suggested an Allied assault on Greece was planned, should fall into the hands of German intelligence.

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.

A suitable body was identified, and considerable effort was made to create Martin's persona: identity card and discs, personal letters, a photograph of a fiancée, St. Christopher medal, some bills and theatre tickets.

Ewen Montagu, the officer in charge of Operation Mincemeat, was faced with the task of finding a body to give substance to the persona of William Martin.

However, in 1996, Roger Morgan, an amateur historian from London, uncovered evidence in the Public Record Office that the identity of the corpse was a Welshman named Glyndwr Michael.

Michael was found in an abandoned warehouse close to King's Cross, seriously ill from ingesting rat poison that contained phosphorus.

One of the symptoms of phosphine poisoning is pulmonary edema, an accumulation of large amounts of liquid in the lungs,[8] which would satisfy the need for a body that appeared to have died by drowning.

When Purchase obtained Michael'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.

[13] Ordinary Coder John Melville of HMS Dasher, died 27 March 1943, is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as buried in Ardrossan Cemetery, Ayrshire.