Royal Observer Corps
In 1929 the control of the Observer Corps passed from the county police forces to the Air Ministry, although Chief Constables retained responsibility for personnel and recruitment matters. 1 March 1929 saw the establishment of the new "Headquarters of the Observer Corps" at Hillingdon House, RAF Uxbridge in the west of London, and Air Commodore Edward A D Masterman CB CMG CBE AFC RAF (Rtd) was appointed as the first commandant of the Observer Corps. "Air Cdre" Masterman held this appointment until his retirement on 1 March 1936, and was succeeded by Air Commodore Alfred Warrington-Morris CG CMG OBE AFC RAF (Rtd), who would lead the Observer Corps through the critical period during the Second World War which saw the RAF emerge bruised but victorious following the Battle of Britain of 1940.
Royal Observer Corps
Only the Nuclear Reporting Cell (NRC) elements of the ROC remained in service which, working alongside major armed forces headquarters, themselves entered a new and highly uncertain phase. Reduced to fewer than 260 members, the 16 retained NRCs now found themselves tasked with the daunting challenge of providing a comprehensive Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warfare analysis and warning service for the Military Home Commands, on a reserve-manned basis as NBCCs but operating without the countrywide flow of data from posts and controls.