The Zen Military

UNIT had its roots in the Intrusion Counter Measures Group established in 1961, under the command of Group Captain Ian Gilmore of the newly formed Royal Air Force Regiment. Staffed with Royal Air Force personnel it was charged with the task of protecting the UK from covert actions by hostile powers and mounting intelligence operations against such a threat. In 1963 it was involved in what later came to be known as the Shoreditch Incident, details of which have never emerged, even to this day. 

The Zen Military – A History of UNIT by Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart (2006) 

Maybury Hall was a sprawling red brick building near the Hendon base. It was usually used for recreation, but Group Captain Gilmore had requisitioned it as his headquarters. Now in the billiard room the portrait of the Queen looked down on teleprinters, radios and field telephones; in the officer’s club the lower ranks sat with feet up on oak tables and stubbed out Woodbines in crystal ashtrays. 

Gilmore decided that he needed a field base closer to the area of operations. 

Sergeant Smith might be able to help on that: Smith had connections in the Shoreditch area, like that man Ratcliffe. Smith had brought him in, a short, broad-shouldered man with the unmistakeable bearing of a soldier. 

Smith said that Ratcliffe ran the Shoreditch Association and that the manpower it could mobilize would be useful to them for ancillary tasks. Gilmore had agreed to notify him if they were needed. Something, however, nagged at Gilmore’s memory: Ratcliffe – I’ve heard that name before. 

But he had far more important things to occupy him.

‘Coming, Professor Jensen?’ Rachel put down her coffee and grabbed her coat. 

‘Of course Miss Williams.’ I wouldn’t miss this for the world, she thought. 

‘I wish Bernard was here.’ 

‘The British Rocket Group has its own problems.’