On this day in 1981

“Where better to send our seeds of death than to the place from whence they came?”

That chilling sentence was included in a letter received by Scottish newspapers on 9 October 1981, at the start of Operation Dark Harvest.

The ‘seeds’ to which the threat referred were anthrax spores, which had been released on the island of Gruinard, close to Ullapool almost 40 years earlier. The British government had purchased the island during the Second World War and used it as a site for testing biological weapons, convinced that Nazi Germany must be doing the same thing.

Thus, scientists at Porton Down, Britain’s centre for biological research, developed a particularly virulent strain of anthrax, which they transported more than 500 miles north to the island. When they arrived, they brought across a flock of sheep by boat, then used small bombs to expose the anthrax spores to the open air.

Anthrax island

The wind carried the spores towards the unsuspecting flock. Within hours, the sheep were dying, and although the UK’s anthrax bombs were never used during the war, the experiment was deemed a success.

However, Gruinard was left heavily polluted and uninhabitable for an indeterminate period. Anthrax, given the right conditions, can remain dormant for up to 200 years and still cause harm if ingested or inhaled. Thus, signs were put up warning the public to stay away, for their own safety and that of society at large.

Operation Dark Harvest

But one group claimed it had ignored the signs and, in the letters sent to news organisations, the Dark Harvest Commando of the Scottish Citizen Army claimed that it had removed 300lb of soil from locations right across the island. It explained its plan to distribute the soil around the mainland, with the aim of having the British government take responsibility for Gruinard Island’s clean-up.

The first bucket was left by a perimeter fence of the Porton Down research establishment, where the anthrax spores had initially been developed. The bucket was discovered on 10 October – the day after the letters had been received.

A second bucket was discovered behind a locked door at Blackpool Tower four days later, at a time when the ruling Conservative Party was holding its annual conference in the town.

Analysis of the soil in the first bucket confirmed that it did indeed contain anthrax, although the spores were not present in the second. A major operation had by then been launched, with police and the military searching for the remaining soil and the people who had taken it. They were also trying to work out how best to keep people off the island.

Gruinard Island clean-up

However, things went quiet for some time, and it wasn’t until 7 December that another letter appeared. This was pinned to the door of St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh, and it announced the suspension of Operation Dark Harvest as, it claimed, the group’s goals had been achieved.

The government set about cleaning up the island by spraying a mix of sea water and formaldehyde on the land and testing at regular intervals. Eventually, on 24 April 1990, after four years of clean-up operations, Gruinard Island was declared anthrax free. It was sold back to its original owners.

However, somewhat worryingly, it was also revealed that the soil hadn’t come from Gruinard at all, but from the land opposite it, on the mainland. If that’s true, it would suggest that anthrax spores had blown across the channel between the island and mainland during the tests.

Moreover, the remainder of the 300lb of soil held by the group has never been recovered.

 

...and on this day in 1993

In August 1981, Glasgow awarded the freedom of the city to Nelson Mandela, who by then had been imprisoned in South Africa for 19 years. The certificate was accepted on his behalf by the vice-president of Nigeria. In 1986, the city went on to rename St George’s Place, home of the South African Consulate in Glasgow, Nelson Mandela Place.

At the time, South Africa was ruled by a white minority under the apartheid system of racial segregation.

Mandela’s arrest

Mandela had dedicated himself to ending the system and been arrested on charges of inciting strikes and leaving the country without permission. He was imprisoned and, while in custody, tried on more serious charges, which resulted in a life sentence. He was eventually released in 1990, after 27 years in prison, following a change of leadership in the governing party. He was elected South Africa’s first president in May 1994.

However, between his release and his election, he visited Glasgow, and thanked the city for its support at a time when much of the British political establishment had been against him.

Nelson Mandela visits Glasgow

Speaking at the City Chambers, Mandela said that Glasgow would always be enjoy a distinguished place in the records of the international campaign against apartheid. “The people of Glasgow, in 1981, were the first in the world to confer on me the freedom of the city at a time when I and my comrades in the ANC were imprisoned on Robben Island serving life sentences which, in apartheid South Africa, [meant] imprisonment until death,” he said. “Whilst we were physically denied our freedom in the country of our birth, a city 6000 miles away and as renowned as Glasgow refused to accept the legitimacy of the apartheid system and declared us to be free.”

Glasgow takes the lead

Although Glasgow was the first to award Mandela freeman status, it wasn’t the only one. Several other cities in the UK and beyond followed its lead. According to BBC News, as it looked back at the event on 9 October 2018, “Glasgow’s promotion of Mandela’s cause quickly led to other cities following suit and within a year [Lord Provost Michael] Kelly had launched a declaration for the release of Nelson Mandela. It went on to gain support from 2,500 mayors from 56 countries around the world.”