The Dark Harvest Commando of the Scottish Citizen Army was a militant group which in 1981 demanded that the British government decontaminate

Gruinard Island Gruinard Island ( ; gd, Eilean Ghruinneard) is a small, oval-shaped Scottish island approximately long by wide, located in Gruinard Bay, about halfway between Gairloch and Ullapool. At its closest point to the mainland, it is about offshore. ...

, a site which had been used for anthrax weapon testing during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, by distributing potentially anthrax-laden soil on the mainland. 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 Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

, 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. The group placed a container of soil outside the Chemical Defence Establishment at

Porton Down Porton Down is a science park in Wiltshire, England, just northeast of the village of Porton, near Salisbury. It is home to two British government facilities: a site of the Ministry of Defence's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. Five days later, a second container of soil was placed at Blackpool, a resort town where the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

was holding a conference presided over by

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

. The first container was found to contain '' Bacillus anthracis'' (the causative agent of anthrax), while the second was uncontaminated but of the same soil type as found on the island. At the end of the year, the group announced they would take no further action through a message pinned to the doors of the

Scottish Office The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the es ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

. Gruinard Island was eventually decontaminated in 1986. One news source claimed that a resurgent DHC had collected spores from Gruinard Island for an attack on

Prince William William, Prince of Wales, (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982) is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in London, William was educa ...

in December 2001. In his novel ''The Impossible Dead'' (2011), author

Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a sch ...

, 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.

References

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