title: Martin Widdowson
text: # Martin Widdowson
  
  Air Commodore Martin Keith Widdowson (born 10 May 1946) was a senior Royal Air Force officer in the 1980s and 1990s and the 24th and last Commandant Royal Observer Corps.
  
  ## Military career
  
  Widdowson was commissioned into the Royal Air Force on 25 March 1964, as an acting pilot officer. A year later, on 25 March 1965, he was regraded as a pilot officer. A year after that, on 25 March 1966, he was promoted to flying officer, and he was appointed to a permanent commission on 1 October 1968. He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 25 September 1969. On 1 January 1974, he was promoted to squadron leader. He was promoted to wing commander on 1 July 1981.
  
  His final operational flying appointment was as the Officer Commanding No. 23 Squadron in 1982 and by the late 1980s, he was Station Commander of RAF Coningsby. He was promoted from wing commander to group captain on 1 January 1988. On 1 July 1992, he was promoted to air commodore and in 1995 he was appointed as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of No. 11/18 Group RAF, simultaneously holding the appointment of 24th and last Commandant Royal Observer Corps until the ROC was Stood Down. He retired from the RAF on 14 September 1996.
  
  