Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down. (ROC headquarters staff at RAF Bentley Priory stood down on 31 March 1996). Composed mainly of civilian spare-time volunteers, ROC personnel wore a Royal Air Force (RAF) style uniform and latterly came under the administrative control of RAF Strike Command and the operational control of the Home Office. Civilian volunteers were trained and administered by a small cadre of professional full-time officers under the command of the Commandant Royal Observer Corps; latterly a serving RAF Air Commodore.
Royal Observer Corps
Within a year four "groups" operated in South East England, covering much of Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Essex, with the intention that a total of eighteen groups would cover the whole of Great Britain. The system required cooperation between and the participation of the RAF, the army, the British police forces and the General Post Office (GPO). (The GPO at that time operated Britain's national telecommunications system.) In January 1926 county police constabularies recruited observers as special constables, and each observation post was manned by a sergeant and six special constables. Recruits were spare-time volunteers who received neither pay, uniform, nor allowances. Individual volunteers purchased the only distinguishing insignia, Observer Corps lapel badges, at their own expense.