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Exercise Magwitch and the prisoners of Rat Island
Popular legend has long told of the presence of graves on an island in Portsmouth Harbour, holding the remains of convicted criminals or Napoleonic-era prisoners of war. In the wake of severe storms that exposed human remains below the cliff, would archaeological investigation confirm the tale? Richard Osgood reports.
When the storms of 2014 crashed into England’s south coast, a tantalising glimpse of life and death in the Georgian period was revealed by the ferocious weather. One of the stories told by the guides who lead harbour trips around Portsmouth tells of the bodies of convicts or Napoleonic prisoners of war buried all over Burrow Island (known locally as ‘Rat Island’). Unlike many urban myths about buried items on the Ministry of Defence estate, this tale has proved to be true.
As the waves lashed the small rubble cliff, several bones were exposed by the erosion. Unmistakeably human, they were reported to our Ministry of Defence Archaeology team by the local police, and in response we ra
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