Bone adds meat to simian myth

A BONE found on a British beach has sparked renewed interest in one of the country's most curious myths: that a monkey washed ashore during the Napoleonic Wars was executed by suspicious citizens for being a French spy.

Police in Hartlepool, on the north-east coast of England, confirmed today that the 15cm bone found on a beach last month was not human but came instead from a monkey or an ape.

The discovery has intrigued Hartlepool residents given the town's curious folklore from the Anglo-French Napoleonic conflict, which lasted from 1793 to 1815.

According to popular legend, a monkey dressed in a French uniform was washed ashore at Hartlepool, where it was tried by magistrates on suspicion of being a French spy.

The monkey did not answer questions so the magistrates presumed it was guilty, and it was hanged from a lamppost.

Although the tale's authenticity is unknown, Hartlepool's football team has long used a man dressed in a monkey suit – dubbed 'H'Angus' – as its mascot.

In a bizarre twist to the story, the man who used to wear the monkey suit, Stuart Drummond, was elected Hartlepool mayor in 2002 after running for the post in the guise of H'Angus.

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