The Files

Josephine Grant

Despite failing General Science A-level, Jo Grant was appointed assistant to the UNIT Doctor during his time as UNIT's Scientific Advisor. She took over this job from the over-qualified Professor Elizabeth Shaw and only got the job due to her uncle, General Hobson - a high ranking General in the British army command. Miss Grant was involved in a variety of UNIT operations during the early 1970's, from the Brecon Hill Investigation to the Nuthatch Affair. During this period with UNIT, Miss Grant did much of UNIT UK's clerical work, as well as assisting the UNIT Doctor. Therefore, an apparently unqualified woman got into a highly classified military taskforce on the basis of nepotism. Miss Grant was potentially a major security risk for UNIT.

As with Mike Yates, Jo Grant was an example of shocking lack of scrutiny within UNIT's ranks. Surely clerical work, dealing with all the various secret activities of UNIT would be given on the basis of merit, rather than connections. Although, to our knowledge, Miss Grant never let slip any sensitive information, it makes little sense for UNIT to employ someone apparently unqualified for the job on the basis that she was someone's niece. It is worth noting, however, that the secrecy surrounding UNIT's activities is not in the public interest. Here, we are merely pointing out that the appointment of Miss Grant was not in tone with the secrecy of the organisation.

After Miss Grant's involvement in the Nuthatch Affair, she retired from UNIT to marry Professor Clifford Jones, a nobel prizewinner and leading environmentalist, who was prominently involved in that incident. The two of them were prominently involved in a number of environmental campaigns. They had a son, Matthew, in 1986 and later divorced.

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