Julius Grant

Who was Julius Grant?

Julius Grant was a British forensic scientist and intelligence officer.

Grant made a career exposing forgeries on the basis of chemical analysis of paper, ink and other characteristics of written documents. Much of his work was for British Intelligence as illustrated in the Colin Wallace Clockwork Orange investigation. Well into retirement, Grant was called in to investigate possible forgery and to give expert evidence in court. In 1984 Grant's analysis of the Hitler Diaries confirmed within a week that it was a forgery. He was also called as a witness in the war-crimes trial of John Demjanjuk.

Grant lived for many of his later years on Friday Island one of the islands in the River Thames. The lock keeper at Old Windsor Lock nearby recalled Dr Grant saying that when he went to the island, he felt it was like going a million miles away. It was like owning half of Australia, it was so secluded.

In the autobiography of a former serving officer of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service - MI6 the author Michael O'Hara wrote "Julius Grant to me and indeed to many law enforcement officers worldwide was arguably the world's most respected forensic scientist in his particular area of expertise. I liked the man personally and he I".