His mother died in January 1940. After her death, Glyndwr Michael had no immediate family and no stable housing. By 1942, he was destitute and essentially homeless in London, classified by the records of the time as “a labourer, no fixed abode.”
On an unknown date in January 1943, he was discovered in a building near King’s Cross, London, suffering from acute poisoning. He had ingested phosphorus, the active component in rat poison that was widely used in wartime Britain. Exactly how it entered his system is a question that the historical record does not resolve cleanly. The inquest recorded “phosphorus poisoning. Took rat poison — bid to kill himself while of unsound mind,” which suggests a finding of suicide. But the circumstances, a starving man found near King’s Cross, were also consistent with accidental ingestion of food contaminated by rat bait.
He was taken to St Pancras Hospital. He died there on January 28, 1943. He was thirty-four years old.
Bentley Purchase, the coroner for St Pancras district, had contacts within the British intelligence community. He was the person who identified Michael’s body as a potentially suitable candidate for what Montagu and Cholmondeley had in mind. Purchase confirmed that the phosphorus-based poisoning was unlikely to leave traces detectable in a cursory wartime autopsy, particularly in the conditions of southern Spain. He confirmed that the body, if kept at a carefully maintained low temperature, could be preserved for the months needed to prepare and deploy the operation.
He confirmed that Michael had no living relatives who would inquire about the body’s disposition.