When was the Royal Observer Corps established?
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
At this time the only uniform items issued to Observer Corps personnel were steel helmets bearing the stenciled letters 'O C', together with blue/white (vertically striped) armbands bearing the same. Both items of equipment were similar in style to those issued to members of the civil defence emergency services, including the Auxiliary Fire Service ('AFS') and Air Raid Precautions ('ARP'). With their status having previously been that of Special Constable, it was ironic that the initial batch of helmets issued to Observer Corps members were the same as those issued to Police forces; black in colour with the word 'POLICE' stencilled in white. (This led some Observer Corps members to simply scratch off the stencilled letters P, L, I, and E, to leave letters O and C remaining). High quality Royal Navy-issue binoculars were issued to observers, whose observation posts often consisted of nothing more than a wooden garden shed located next to a telegraph pole, this arrangement enabling a telecommunications link to be established with a control centre, often via a manual switchboard at local telephone exchange.
Royal Observer Corps Medal
The ROC was stood down in December 1995 and as such there are no ROC personnel in service. However, should the ROC ever be reactivated the ROC medal remains extant and awards could recommence at that time.
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Banner, (displayed at St Clement Danes Church), the stained glass window at Bentley Priory, those former posts, group controls, MoD bunkers and other sites operating as museums, and those individuals who attend memorial parades as members of the ROC Association, continue to provide a link to the ROC and its distinguished past roles in contributing to the defence of the United Kingdom. The ROC and those who have served throughout its history are commemorated at the National Memorial Arboretum, where members of the ROC Association regularly undertake practical grounds maintenance of the ROC "grove".History
Royal Observer Corps
In 1944, during preparations for the invasion of France, (Operation Overlord), a request for volunteers from within the ranks of the ROC produced 1,094 highly qualified candidates, from which 796 were selected to perform aircraft recognition duties as Seaborne Observers.
Hong Kong Observatory
The Observatory was established in 1883 as the Hong Kong Observatory by Sir George Bowen, the 9th Governor of Hong Kong, with Dr William Doberck (1852-1941) as its first director. Early operations included meteorological and magnetic observations, a time service based on astronomical observations and a tropical cyclone warning service. The Observatory was renamed the Royal Observatory Hong Kong () after obtaining a Royal Charter in 1912. The Observatory adopted the current name and emblem in 1997 after the transfer of Hong Kong's sovereignty from the UK to China.
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The establishment of a Royal Observatory was proposed in 1674 by Sir Jonas Moore who, in his role as Surveyor General at the Ordnance Office, persuaded King Charles II to create the observatory, with John Flamsteed installed as its director. The Ordnance Office was given responsibility for building the Observatory, with Moore providing the key instruments and equipment for the observatory at his own personal cost. Flamsteed House, the original part of the Observatory, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, probably assisted by Robert Hooke, and was the first purpose-built scientific research facility in Britain. It was built for a cost of £520 (£20 over budget) out of largely recycled materials on the foundations of Duke Humphrey's Tower, the forerunner of Greenwich Castle, which resulted in the alignment being 13 degrees away from true North, somewhat to Flamsteed's chagrin.
Royal Observer Corps
A notable example of one such cover story involving the ROC is that which took place at RAF Little Rissington, where a series of tunnels were excavated during the 1940s. RAF Little Rissington forces personnel and local residents were informed that this activity was associated with an ROC unit, which was indeed seen to be manned by individuals wearing ROC uniforms. The ROC however had no knowledge of the existence of this supposed ROC facility until many years after the war.
Royal Observer Corps
RAF Bentley Priory, home of HQROC for the entire history of the "Royal" Observer Corps, closed in May 2008 and will be developed as a private hotel or luxury apartments, with the historic officers' mess rooms and a selection of ROC items retained as a public museum. With effect from July 2011, the ROC Museum, Winchester, assumed responsibility from the MoD for the maintenance, storage and dissemination of information relating to "ROC Service Records" of those individuals who served with the Corps.
George Black (RAF officer)
In February 1983 Black was appointed as the 18th Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, an appointment he held until September 1984.
Royal Observer Corps
Throughout 1917 Germany began to deploy increasing numbers of fixed-wing bombers, with the result that the number of airship raids decreased rapidly in favour of raids by such aircraft. In response to this new threat, Major General Edward Bailey Ashmore, a Royal Flying Corps pilot who later commanded an artillery division in Belgium, was appointed to devise an improved system of detection, communication and control. The system, called the "Metropolitan Observation Service", encompassed the London Air Defence Area and later extended eastwards towards the Kentish and Essex coasts.
Geoffrey Ambler
Air Vice Marshal Geoffrey Hill Ambler (23 June 1904 – 26 August 1978) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Ambler served as the third Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, the first serving RAF officer to hold the appointment as his predecessors were retired air commodores.
Royal Australian Survey Corps
On 3 July 1915, Military Order 396 of 1915 promulgated that His Excellency the Governor-General has been pleased to approve of: 'A Corps to be called the Australian Survey Corps being raised as a unit of the Permanent Military Forces. All officers, warrant officers, non-commissioned officers and men now serving in the Survey Section of the Royal Australian Engineers being transferred to the Australian Survey Corps with their present ranks and seniority.' The effective date of the foundation of the Corps was 1 July 1915 – on that day there were two officers and seventeen warrant officers and NCOs of the Corps (at that stage there were no sappers in the Corps). The Australian Survey Corps was placed fourth in the Order of Precedence of Corps after the Royal Australian Engineers.
Norman Lockyer Observatory
The observatory was founded by Joseph Norman Lockyer in 1912 when he retired to Sidmouth following the closure of the South Kensington Observatory, of which Lockyer was Director. Originally known as Hill Observatory, the observatory was renamed Norman Lockyer Observatory after his death in 1920. Mary Thomasina Browne, "a.k.a" "Lady Lockyer", took a strong interest in the observatory and made gifts to it. She was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1923.
Royal Observer Corps
It is important to note that at this time they (the Observer Corps) constituted the whole means of tracking enemy raids once they had crossed the coastline. Their work throughout was quite invaluable. Without it the air-raid warning systems could not have been operated and inland interceptions would rarely have been made.
Royal Observer Corps
At the end of September 1938 the political crisis which culminated in the Munich Agreement had led to the Observer Corps being mobilised for a period of one week. This single act proved to be invaluable as it highlighted a number of organisational and technical shortcomings, and provided the impetus for the development of solutions to resolve these. A series of exercises held throughout 1939 provided opportunities for the fine tuning of improvements made to command and control functions. Operational procedures would continue to evolve throughout the war, a process facilitated by the enthusiasm, dedication and professionalism which volunteer members, coming from every walk of life, brought with them to the Observer Corps.
Alfred Warrington-Morris
In 1934 on leaving the Royal Air Force he was employed as the Deputy Commandant of the Observer Corps under Air Commodore Edward Masterman CB CBE AFC RAF (Rtd) at RAF Uxbridge. Between 1935 and 1936 he was appointed Commandant of Southern Area of the Observer Corps during the massive and crucial expansion and development of the Corps during the inter war years.
When Air Commodore Masterman stood down as Commandant ROC in April 1936 Warrington-Morris replaced him and took control of the Observer Corps during the important period immediately prior to the Second World War. He oversaw the move of HQ Observer Corps to RAF Bentley Priory and the Corps' adoption by RAF Fighter Command. He also controlled the Corps during the memorable events of the Battle of Britain and was still at the helm when the Observer Corps was granted the title "Royal" to become the Royal Observer Corps and became a uniformed branch of the RAF. He was Mentioned in Despatches in July 1940.
Royal Observer Corps
Until 1984 the camp training programme consisted of approximately twenty lessons, each concerned with distinct and unrelated subjects. From 1985 onwards, the training syllabus was reorganised as a series of five or six concentrated mini-courses concerned with specific subjects which observers would study throughout the entire week, thus permitting individual subjects to be taught in greater detail. Subjects included "Techniques of Instruction" (TOI), "First Aid", "Triangulation, Transition to War" (TTW) and "Communications Management". UKWMO "Assistant Sector Controllers" provided a 'Warning Officers' course for control observers, detailing the UKWMO Warning Team's role and responsibilities in the event of war.
Royal Observer Corps
These 'garden shed' style observation posts were eventually replaced by more substantial brick-built structures, protected by sandbags, which due to their often having been constructed by Observer Corps personnel themselves meant that no two posts were identical. Observation posts were located in open playing fields, hilltops or cliff edges and, particularly in urban areas, on the rooftops of public buildings and factories. Purpose-built observation posts introduced later were usually two-storey structures, constructed of brick or concrete with an open-topped observation platform above a small crew rest area. (These 1940s-era posts are sometimes incorrectly referred to as 'Orlit' posts; a term correctly associated with 1950s-era, pre-cast concrete aircraft observation posts, manufactured by "Orlit Ltd").
Royal Observer Corps
During 1958, RAF Fighter Command expressed a desire to obtain data similar to that provided by the ROC in the event of a nuclear attack, specifically that concerning the location of nuclear bursts and the resulting nuclear fallout. The Air Defence Commander at the Air Defence Operations Centre, (ADOC), RAF Bentley Priory, in order to ensure continued operations by RAF mobile and static units, wished to use such data in determining which UK airfields, (both civil and military), had been subject to blast damage and/or exposed to any subsequent nuclear fallout.
Hong Kong Observers
The Hong Kong Observers () was a middle class-based pressure group in Hong Kong active during the 1970s and 80s. It was formed by a group of young Chinese professionals who were educated overseas and second-generation British expatriates discussing current issues on 7 July 1975. It hoped to "supervise and criticise the government through objective research, exerting pressure on the government by influencing public opinion."
Lavernock
The Penarth cliff top nuclear bunker was closed down and abandoned by the ROC in 1975 after repeated destructive break-ins by local vandals, but the concrete entrance hatch and ventilator tower can still be observed next to the cliff walk near Lower Cosmeston farmhouse. The Royal Observer Corps itself was disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change review of UK defence.
Royal Observer Corps
Seaborne Observers remain the only members of the ROC whose service during World War II entitles them to wear the HM Armed Forces Veterans Badge, their qualifying for such resulting from the approximately ten-week period of secondment to the Royal Navy. (The ROC itself never having been one of HM Armed Forces; ROC members being non-combatants during wartime with the exception of full-time officers who could be armed and therefore legally classed as combatants). A Seaborne Observers' Association exists with Air Vice Marshal George Black CB OBE AFC RAF (Rtd), a former Commandant ROC, acting as Honorary President.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1957, the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO) was established under Home Office control. It was intended that the UKWMO would provide both civil and military authorities in the UK with essential information during a nuclear attack, with the ROC providing primary data on the position and magnitude of atomic weapons detonated during any such attack. This data would be used by the UKWMO, in conjunction with weather information provided by the Meteorological Office, to produce a forecast of radioactive fallout. Fallout would be monitored as and where it occurred, with its actual location and strength mapped using data obtained from instrumentation at ROC posts. Such information when combined with "ROCMet", (data concerning actual wind speed and direction obtained from cluster "Master Posts" equipped with wind anemometers and other basic meteorological instruments), would permit the dissemination of accurate forecasts predicting the distribution and strength of nuclear fallout.
CFB North Bay
The Ground Observer Corps (GObC) was a Canada-wide organization created by the RCAF to assist in defence of the nation against a Soviet nuclear air attack. Established on 1 October 1952, and headed by Air Defence Command, 50,000 civilian GObC volunteers from every walk of life, from housewives to Jesuit priests, watched the skies with binoculars and reported aircraft sightings by telephone to filter centres. Some GObC volunteers also set up sound-detection equipment at their own expense to search for the sound of aircraft engines at night, bad weather, and during heavy cloud cover, when visual sightings were impossible.
Royal Observer Corps
Approximately every four or five years each group was subjected to a "no notice" and in depth "OPEVAL" assessment similar to an RAF "TACEVAL" or Tactical Evaluation, where a mixed team of UKWMO and ROC full-time staff would appear and evaluate all aspects of the group's planning and operations under realistic wartime conditions over a period of 48 hours.
Royal Observer Corps
Following the UK Government's "Options for Change" defence spending review in 1990, the vast majority of the civilian spare-time volunteers were stood down on 30 September 1991, with the remainder being stood down on 31 December 1995. The closure of HQROC on 31 March 1996 and redeployment of those few remaining HQROC staff marked the disbandment of the ROC after over 70 years of service.
Royal Observer Corps
The association has actively continued since the ROC disbanded and still provides an additional contact point for ex-observers and their dependants. The ROCA also organises the annual reunion weekend each October at a suitable holiday resort hotel and provides an ROC contingent to the annual Remembrance Sunday event at the Cenotaph in London.
Corps
In the United Kingdom, the Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence unit from 1925 until disbanded in 1995.
Options for Change
Other casualties of the restructuring were the UK's nuclear civil defence organisations, the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation, and its field force, the Royal Observer Corps (a part-time volunteer branch of the RAF), both disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995.
The amalgamation of the Royal Scots and King's Own Scottish Borderers into the Royal Scots Borderers (one battalion) and the Cheshire Regiment and Staffordshire Regiment into the Cheshire and Staffordshire Regiment (one battalion) was suspended in 1994.
A dramatisation of the effects that Options for Change had on the ordinary men and women serving in the armed forces came in the ITV series "Soldier Soldier". The fictional infantry regiment portrayed in the series, the King's Fusiliers, was one of those selected for amalgamation. It showed the whole process of negotiation over traditions, embellishments, etc. between the two regiments involved, and the uncertainty that many of those serving felt for their jobs in the light of two separate battalions merging into one, with the resulting loss of manpower.
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (A–E)
This is a list of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) nuclear monitoring posts incorporated into the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO).Notes:-
Carlisle
The Royal Observer Corps was stood down and its parent organisation the UKWMO was disbanded in December 1995 after the end of the Cold War and as a result of recommendations in the governments Options for Change review of UK defence. The ROC buildings were demolished in 1996 and replaced by a cellphone communications mast. The foundations of the nuclear bunker can still be partially seen outlined in the concreted yard, which also contains the Air Training Corps hut during recent further development of the site.
United States Marine Air-Ground Task Force Reconnaissance
The Marine Corps established its first specialized ground/amphibious reconnaissance unit, the "Observer Group", in 1941, which was formed for the upcoming secretive mission in North Africa (in preparation for "Operation Torch")—under the command of Captain James L. Jones Sr. The unit was composed of skilled and highly proficient swimmers from the Army, Navy, and the Marine Corps. Momentarily, the Observer Group was ordered to be decommissioned, but not completely dissolved; the Marine unit was re-institutionalized as the Amphibious Reconnaissance Company. The remaining Army and Navy counterparts formed the "Scouts and Raiders" and continued its deployment to North Africa as planned. The Scouts and Raiders are the predecessor to the Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDU), which subsequently became the Underwater Demolition Teams—the patrons of the prestigious Navy SEALs.
Royal Observer Corps
On at least one occasion during the mid-1980s, ROC personnel were briefly called upon to resume their historic role in visually identifying aircraft for the purpose of air defence. The Royal Artillery, conducting exercises at the Otterburn Training Area involving the deployment of the "Rapier" surface-to-air missile, invited personnel from the ROC to assist Rapier crews with aircraft identification. The exercises involved both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft conducting simulated attacks on high-value ground targets, the defence of which was tasked to the Rapier crews. The high energy manoeuvres conducted by fixed-wing aircraft at low level meant that the task of identifying such targets as "Hostile" or "Friendly" proved to be extremely challenging.
Hillingdon House
When the Royal Air Force was formed on 1 April 1918, following the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, the Uxbridge site came under the control of the new service, becoming known as the RAF Central Depot, Uxbridge. The site was then split to form administratively two RAF stations: the area east of the River Pinn including Hillingdon House became RAF Hillingdon and the remainder RAF Uxbridge. Among the aircraftmen trained at Hillingdon was T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia'), whose book "The Mint", initially censored for its frank use of four-letter words, describes his time there: "Hillingdon House looked forlorn, because of its black windows, behind whose wideness the clerks lounged with their first cups of tea. 'Jammy [cunts],' sneered Sailor enviously."
On 1 March 1929, the Royal Observer Corps established its headquarters at Hillingdon House, where it remained until transferring to RAF Bentley Priory on 1 March 1936. No. 11 Group formed on the same day under the command of Air Vice Marshal Philip Joubert de la Ferté, using Hillingdon House as its headquarters. On 13 July, RAF Bomber Command was formed from the old HQ Air Defence of Great Britain and was also based in the house, remaining there until 1940 when the command moved to RAF High Wycombe.
RAF Wrexham
Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened nuclear bunker, built for No 17 Group Royal Observer Corps North Wales, who provided the field force of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and would have sounded the four-minute warning alarm in the event of war and warned the population of Wrexham in the event of approaching radioactive fallout. The building was manned by up to 80 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis and wore a Royal Air Force style uniform. After the break up of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker still stands on the site of RAF Wrexham as a lasting reminder of the cold war, but is now converted and used as a recording studio.
Ground Observer Corps
The second Ground Observer Corps, with programmatic aims and methodologies similar to the first, was organized in early 1950, during the Cold War. Operating as an arm of the United States Air Force Civil Defense service, the second GOC supplemented the Lashup Radar Network and the Permanent System radar stations. Observations were telephoned directly to filter centers and the information was in turn relayed to Air Defense Command ground control interception centers. By 1952 the GOC program was expanded into Operation Skywatch, consisting of 750,000 volunteers aged 7 to 86 years old working in shifts at over 16,000 posts and 73 filter centers. Extant examples of observation platforms used by GOC/Skywatch volunteers include the Cairo Skywatch Tower; another tower exists in Soda Springs, Idaho.
Royal Observer Corps
During the 1930s the number of groups increased until by 1936, England had a full coverage of observation posts south-east of a line between Flamborough Head in Yorkshire and Poole Harbour in Dorset. (In 1936 the Headquarters of the Observer Corps relocated from RAF Uxbridge to RAF Bentley Priory in north-west London). By 1939 a system of observation posts covered practically the whole of Great Britain, with the western parts of Wales and Scotland together with England's West Country incorporated during 1940. The final group, Portree in the Western Isles, formed in 1941.
Royal Observer Corps
All ROC ranks below that of Observer Officer were entitled to wear a "Spitfire" proficiency badge to mark success in the annual ROC "Master Test" examination. The first version of this test was introduced during the Second World War as a measure of competency in the field of aircraft recognition, with candidates required to correctly identify a set of aircraft silhouette cards in order to be judged proficient. (Results and names of those observers who had met the required standard were published at the rear of the ROC magazine). The insignia awarded to those who had been successful was a "printed" badge depicting a white Spitfire on blue/grey material. The test cards were later replaced by photographic slides projected onto a screen using a "Flash Trainer" projector. Between 1956 and 1966 the test became a mix of aircraft recognition and written answers to questions relating to the nuclear detection role. Latterly, the master test was a 100 question multiple-choice test, and separate specialist papers were provided for post and NRC observers.
Royal Observer Corps Medal
The only occasion where an ROC Medal was awarded to a former member of the ROC was when UKWMO Sector Controller Kenneth Rodley was awarded the ROC Medal after twenty four years full-time service. Rodley commenced his ROC service as Group Training Officer with 20 Group (York) in February 1958 and was later seconded to the Home Office, in 1971. It had been realised that, due to an administrative error, Rodley's secondment had never officially converted to that of a full civil service transfer, and that he had therefore technically remained a member of the ROC. The Medal was awarded to him by Air Commodore George Black at a surprise ceremony in 1984 at RAF Scampton. Rodley attempted to make an acceptance speech but was overcome by emotion and took his seat to a standing ovation by those present.
Royal Observer Corps
Throughout the Second World War, ROC personnel were paid expenses and allowances in cash via their Group HQ and several Deputy Group Commandants discovered that they had up to one hundred additional observers appearing on their staff roll, each receiving higher than normal allowances, despite these individuals having never reported for duty.
Edward Masterman
Air Commodore Edward Alexander Dimsdale Masterman, (15 April 1880 – 26 August 1957) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force in the first half of the 20th century. After retiring from the RAF, he served as the first ever Commandant of the Observer Corps.
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.
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts (L–P)
This is a list of Royal Observer Corps (ROC) nuclear monitoring posts incorporated into the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation (UKWMO).Notes:-
Royal Observer Corps
In 1962, the forty ROC Groups were reorganised and reduced in number to thirty-one, with a further reduction to twenty-five taking place in 1968. Service age limits of 16 to 65 were introduced, with service after the age of 65 only occurring where replacements could not be recruited, subject to annual review, and where appropriate medical certificates could be provided. (Some individuals acting as wartime "post" observers had served well into their seventies and eighties, although wartime "centre" observers had been forced to retire at fifty.)
Group captain
The equivalent rank in the Royal Observer Corps (until 1995) was "observer captain", which had a similar rank insignia.
Royal Observer Corps
Of the remaining 170 full-time ROC uniformed and civilian staff, many were transferred to other appointments within the Ministry of Defence and other UK Government departments, some opted to take early retirement, however the majority were made redundant. The "Senior Administration Officer" (S Ad O) and "Personnel Services Officer" (P Serv O) at HQROC undertook an extensive campaign of arranging relocation or retirement courses for staff from all over the UK. The S Ad O and an Observer Lieutenant remained in post to administer the reduced ROC contingent under a revised RAF structure. A massive exercise in recalling instruments, equipment, furniture and stores from all monitoring posts and controls took place over a period of nine months, controlled by the HQROC Supply Officer. Arrangements were made with the Ministry of Defence and RAF Historical Branch to archive ROC files, documents and historical memorabilia at various locations across the country.
Royal Observer Corps
During early 2008, "ROCA 17 Group (North Wales)" and "4 Group (Colchester)" seceded from the national organisation. Both groups rejoined the association in 2012.
Royal Observer Corps
The headquarters of each ROC "Group" operated from a control "Centre", responsible for and controlled between 30 and 40 observation "Posts", each of which would be some 10 km to 20 km from its neighbour. By 1945 there were 40 centres covering Great Britain, controlling in total more than 1,500 posts. (The ROC did not operate in Northern Ireland until 1954).
Royal Observer Corps
Throughout the remainder of the Second World War, the ROC continued to complement and at times replace the "Chain Home" defensive radar system by undertaking an inland aircraft tracking and reporting function, while "Chain Home" provided a predominantly coastal, long-range tracking and reporting system. With the advent of the Cold War, the ROC continued in its primary role of aircraft recognition and reporting, and in 1955 was allocated the additional task of detecting and reporting nuclear explosions and associated fall-out. By 1965, thanks to advances in (radar) technology, most roles and responsibilities relating to aircraft had been withdrawn and the ROC assumed the role of field force for the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation, (UKWMO); a role which the ROC continued until the early 1990s and the cessation of the Cold War.
Royal Observer Corps
When the ROC was first issued with RAF style uniforms in 1941, the RAF was able to provide the majority of the uniform items but held insufficient stocks of RAF blue berets. However, at that time the Army held a surplus of black Royal Tank Regiment berets, therefore the ROC was initially issued with black berets, which remained part of the ROC uniform only until a manufacturer was able to produce the prescribed midnight blue berets, which then remained part of the ROC uniform throughout its history. There was a similar shortage of both Sergeant and Corporal stripes. However, there existed a large surplus of rank badges destined for the quasi-military "Royal Canadian (Volunteer) Storekeeper Corps" who served in UK dockside warehouses during the Second World War. These badges, displaying horizontal bars within a wreath of laurel leaves, were adopted for the ROC, with "Chief Storekeeper" becoming "Chief Observer" and "Leading Storekeeper" becoming "Leading Observer". The four bar rank of "Master Storekeeper" was discounted initially, but was again under consideration in 1990 as an RAF Warrant Officer equivalent rank styled "Master Observer"; intended to act as dedicated assistants to Crew, Group and NRC officers. However, the decision on whether to introduce the rank of Master Observer was overtaken by the standing down announcement. (The surplus rank badges destined for the Royal Canadian (Volunteer) Storekeeper Corps were also used by the United States' Civilian Technical Corps, who were based in the UK during the Second World War).
Royal Observer Corps
Despite having successfully built upon the extensive NBC reporting trials, undertaken with the RAF Regiment, and meeting full NATO standards and evaluations (STANAGs and OPEVALs), the conclusion reached by the UK MoD was that retention of the ROC in its NBC Cell role was "desirable, but not essential in the existing format". As a consequence, the remaining part-time members of the ROC were stood down on 31 December 1995, following the laying-up ceremony conducted for the 1991 ROC Royal Banner in the Rotunda at RAF College Cranwell on 8 Dec 1995, where it remains on display alongside other stood-down Air Force units and squadrons which remain subject to possible future reactivation. Headquarters ROC at RAF Bentley Priory finally closed on 31 March 1996, after all administrative winding up tasks were completed. Assisted by the Senior ROC Officer (SROCO), Observer Commander N A Greig, MBE, the honour of being the last Commandant of the ROC fell to Air Commodore Martin K Widdowson RAF, who held the position jointly with his appointment as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) of the newly combined No. 11/18 Group RAF.
George Boddy
Air Commodore George Michael Boddy, was a senior Royal Air Force officer in the 1980s and the Commandant Royal Observer Corps.
History of Maidstone
The headquarters of No 1 Group Royal Observer Corps was situated in Maidstone until the organisation was disbanded in 1995. At the time the station and regional commander was Lt. Linn Denholm.
Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia)
The Volunteer Air Observers Corps (VAOC) was an Australian air defence organisation of World War II. The VAOC was formed on 31 December 1941 to support the Royal Australian Air Force by sighting and observing aircraft over Australia. The VAOC swiftly established observation posts across Australia and provided information to the RAAF's regional air control posts. As the threat to Australia declined the VAOC's role was expanded to include coast watching, assisting air traffic control and weather reporting. The VAOC was staffed by civilian volunteers and reached a peak strength of 24,000 personnel and 2,656 observation posts in 1944. After the end of the war the VAOC was reduced to a cadre in December 1945 and was disbanded on 10 April 1946. The VAOC was similar to the British Royal Observer Corps.
Charles Meldrum
As the site at Port Louis was unsuitable for a meteorological observatory, with the support of General Sir Edward Sabine, then President of the Royal Society, he was able to organise the construction of a new observatory on a marshy site in Pamplemousses District. There in 1870 the Duke of Edinburgh laid the foundation stone of the Royal Alfred Observatory which was operational by 1874. As before, the principal work of the observatory was the study of the movement of storms, but from 1880 photographs of the solar surface were taken daily to supplement the series made at Greenwich and Dehra Dun in north India to create a continuous record of the number of sunspots. The Pamplemousses observatory would be demolished in 1961 and its meteorological work transferred to Vacoas.
Skipsea
The Royal Observer Corps used Skipsea as a site for a Cold War observation post. The site was active from October 1959 until its decommissioning in September 1991. The site lay derelict until it was restored by an enthusiast in October 2008.
Royal Observer Corps Orlit Post
Experience from WW2 identified that there would be a need for increased protection from enemy aircraft if the UK was ever faced with the prospact of being at war again. Although the ROC was finding that aircraft monitoring was becoming increasingly difficult to plot with the development of new faster aircraft, new aircraft monitoring posts were developed to assist observers to monitor aircraft.
Royal Observer Corps
Inter-group control-to-control exchange of burst and radiation data was initially via "teller" voice message using telephone lines between adjacent groups. In 1971 this method was replaced by punched tape data exchanges by telegraph teleprinters located in the communications centre. Between 1981 and 1985 the teleprinters were replaced with modern computerised AD9000 message switch equipment, operating over a permanent and EMP hardened landline network, permitting direct communications between groups nationally. In the late 1980s the manually operated PMBX switchboards were replaced with computerised direct dial SX2000 equipment.
During the years immediately prior to the stand down of the ROC, trials were undertaken with the intention of providing monitoring posts with remotely operated above ground petrol generators to provide a constant electricity supply (a portable generator capable of producing both 12 V and 240 V(Yamaha EF1000) was supplied in small quantities to a number of groups), "black" heaters to provide a warmer environment and new sealed, recycling ventilators to allow air changes without requiring the post to be exposed to a contaminated air source.
Royal Observer Corps
The Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps was a Royal Air Force officer with the rank of Air Commodore. With only three exceptions, (two Navigators and one General Duties (Ground) Supply Branch officer), all Commandants ROC were RAF pilots with extensive service records and previous command appointments. Had an ROC officer been appointed to the post of Commandant ROC they would have held the rank of Observer Commodore, although no such appointment was ever made.
Royal Observer Corps
The ROC has twice been commemorated by the naming of railway locomotives. Constructed in 1946, the Battle of Britain class steam locomotive no.34050 was named ""Royal Observer Corps"" in February 1948, and was presented with an ROC Long Service Medal ribbon at Waterloo station on 2 July 1961 by Air Commodore C M Wight-Boycott. Withdrawn from service and scrapped in 1965, the locomotive's nameplate survived and now forms part of the collection at the RAF Museum. Constructed in 1966, the British Rail Class 73 electro-diesel locomotive no.73137 was from 1985 until 1999 named ""Royal Observer Corps"". Marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Corps, Air Chief Marshal Sir David Craig undertook the naming ceremony at Waterloo Station on 30 October 1985.
Royal Observer Corps
Technical
Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope
The proposal for a Southern observatory in all liklihood originated among the same group of people who founded the Royal Astronomical Society in the United Kingdom . Its official establishment took place on 20 October 1820 through an Order in Council of King George IV of the United Kingdom. It remained a separate entity until 1972 when it was amalgamated with the Republic Observatory Johannesburg to form the present-day South African Astronomical Observatory. Its site is now the headquarters of the South African Astronomical Observatory.
Ground Observer Corps
The first Ground Observer Corps was a World War II Civil Defense program of the United States Army Air Forces to protect United States territory against air attack. The 1.5 million civilian observers at 14,000 coastal observation posts performed naked eye and binocular searches to detect German or Japanese aircraft. Observations were telephoned to filter centers, which in turn forwarded authenticated reports to the Aircraft Warning Service, which also received reports from Army radar stations. The program ended in 1944. A few Aircraft Warning Service Observation Towers survive as relics.
Royal Observer Corps
On one memorable occasion the observers on duty received a one-minute advance warning from a royal footman that they were about to receive a royal visit. A few minutes later, the King and Queen, together with the teenage Princess Elizabeth, climbed up the steep ladder and joined the observers on the darkened roof-top while a major V-1 flying bomb attack was taking place over London. The royal visitors stayed for over an hour, asking technical questions and peering through binoculars at the unfolding aerial battle. Prior to departing, the royal party autographed the post Duty Log. The following evening, the royal party again appeared and on this occasion stayed for a longer period, although there was little aerial activity due to poor weather.
Christian Observer
The "Christian Observer" was founded by William Hey "in response to the dissenters' "Leeds Mercury"." It was published by the bookseller John Hatchard. Various members of the Clapham Sect were associated with the paper from the outset. Josiah Pratt, who had called for such an evangelical periodical in a 1799 meeting of the Eclectic Society, served as editor for the first number in January 1802. Pratt was succeeded after six weeks by Zachary Macaulay, who edited the periodical until 1816.
Later editors were Samuel Charles Wilks (from 1816 to 1849), William Goode (from 1847 to 1849), John William Cunningham (from 1850 to 1858), and John Buxton Marsden (from 1859 to 1869).
Royal Observer Corps
On 12 September 2008, a replica of a No. 41 Squadron Spitfire MkIIA, wearing the ""Observer Corps"" badge and title, was installed as gate guardian at RAF High Wycombe. The original aircraft on which the replica is based; EB-Z ser. no P7666, was the personal aircraft of Sqn/Ldr Donald Finlay, Commanding Officer of No. 41 Squadron at RAF Hornchurch. This aircraft being one of two which Observer Corps personnel raised sufficient funds in order to purchase for the RAF at the start of World War II. (In 2010 a BAe Harrier GR9A was adorned with the tail code EB-Z and title ""Observer Corps"" in order to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Harrier "ZG857" displayed these additional markings during the months which preceded the type's retirement from RAF service in March 2011).
Thiepval Barracks
From 1954 the barracks contained the operational headquarters of No 31 Belfast Group Royal Observer Corps who operated from a protected nuclear bunker on Knox Road within Thiepval Barracks. Converted from a 1940s anti-aircraft operations room (AAOR) the bunker would support over one hundred ROC volunteers and a ten-man United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation warning team responsible for the famous four-minute warning in the event of a nuclear strike on the UK. The ROC would also detect radioactive fallout from the nuclear bursts and warn the public of approaching fallout. The two organisations were stood down at the end of the Cold War.
Royal Observer Corps
In the early 1960s, when the nuclear reporting role building programme was in full swing, the ROC post at Windsor relocated to the cellar beneath the Brunswick Tower and a partial monitoring room was excavated under the garden in front of the tower's base. The BPI (Bomb Power Indicator) and FSM (Fixed Survey Meter) instrument fittings on the lawn were clearly visible to the many tourists visiting the castle, although few would have realised their significance. The GZI (Ground Zero Indicator) was mounted on top of the tower's battlements involving an exhausting climb of several hundred circular stone steps and 400 feet in each direction. The observers at the Windsor post were unique in the country in not having to provide their own food during exercises. Instead, they received hot meals, brought by royal footman, from the castle kitchens. Twelve months after the ROC post was closed, the Brunswick Tower was the starting point and seat of the 1992 Windsor Castle fire and was substantially damaged.
Royal Observer Corps
By the late 1980s the ROC comprised 69 professional full-time officers, approximately 10,500 civilian spare-time volunteers, and over 100 Ministry of Defence (MoD) civilian support staff. At HQROC, (RAF Bentley Priory), over a dozen full-time secretarial, clerical and other administrative staff were present. Each of the five Area HQs were staffed by a clerical officer and a typist, and each of the 25 Group HQs were staffed by a clerical officer, typist and handyperson. (Many MoD civilian support staff were also civilian spare-time volunteers).
Royal Observer Corps
In 1986 the Royal Observer Corps Association (ROCA) was established with membership open to members of the ROC to provide close and continuing links between former ROC members. The association is organised on a regional basis with representation in each of the twenty five groups. Each group produces and distributes a magazine several times a year to keep the membership informed of developments and both local or national news.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1925, following a Defence Committee initiative undertaken the previous year, the formation of an RAF command concerning the Air Defence of Great Britain led to the provision of a "Raid Reporting System", itself delegated to a sub-committee consisting of representatives from the Air Ministry, Home Office and the General Post Office. This "Raid Reporting System" was to provide for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain, and was eventually to become known as the Observer Corps. The Observer Corps was subsequently awarded the title Royal by His Majesty King George VI in April 1941, in recognition of service carried out by Observer Corps personnel during the Battle of Britain.
Royal Observer Corps
In 1950, King George Vl granted permission for the issue of a "Royal Observer Corps Medal" for twelve years continuous service. Each subsequent period of twelve years was recognised by the award of an RAF "eagle clasp" attached to the medal ribbon. Service by full-time officers was calculated at a rate of 50% for qualifying years, thereby requiring fully twenty four years service in order to qualify for a medal or subsequent clasp. However, any spare-time service previously undertaken by such individuals counted in full. (ROC personnel who served for 28 days during World War II also qualified for the award of a War Medal, with service of 1,080 days qualifying for the 1939–1945 Star and the Defence Medal).
Royal Observer Corps
Following the 1990 defence spending review "Options for Change", the main field force of the ROC's monitoring post and group control personnel were stood down on 30 September 1991. The previous day, the original 1966 ROC Royal Banner was laid up at St Clement Danes Church, London, with attending ROC personnel conducting a slow-march, ("Skywatch" being the ROC regimental quick-march), while carrying the banner to its final resting place, where it remains on display. (A replacement banner had been presented previously by Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Review of the ROC in July 1991). The ROC, along with the UKWMO, was officially disestablished following what was described by The Queen at the 1991 Royal Review as "the end of the Cold War". This move was linked to a Government press release which referred to "possible future developments and improvements in automated nuclear explosion and fallout detection from remote sensors".
Cliff Spink
Spink also served as the last but one Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, from 1993 until 1995. Spink remains the honorary President of the Royal Observer Corps Association. He is a Vice-Patron of the Royal Air Force Halton Apprentices Association Old Haltonians.
The Observer
Upon Frederick's death in 1901, the paper was purchased by the newspaper magnate Lord Northcliffe. After maintaining the existing editorial leadership for a couple of years, in 1908 Northcliffe named James Louis Garvin as editor. Garvin quickly turned the paper into an organ of political influence, boosting circulation from 5,000 to 40,000 within a year of his arrival as a result. Yet the revival in the paper's fortunes masked growing political disagreements between Garvin and Northcliffe. These disagreements ultimately led Northcliffe to sell the paper to William Waldorf Astor in 1911, who transferred ownership to his son Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor four years later.
Royal Observer Corps
Organisations similar to the ROC were formed elsewhere during the Second World War, including the Ground Observer Corps, (USA), the Aircraft Identity Corps, (Canada), and the Volunteer Air Observers Corps, (Australia). However, unlike the Royal Observer Corps, most of these organisations had been disbanded by the end of the 1950s.
Aircraft spotting
During World War II and the subsequent Cold War some countries encouraged their citizens to become "plane spotters" in an "observation corps" or similar public body for reasons of public security. Britain had the Royal Observer Corps which operated between 1925 and 1995. A journal called "The Aeroplane Spotter" was published in January 1940. The publication included a glossary that was refined in 2010 and published online.
Edward Sismore
On 4 January 1971, on promotion to air commodore, Sismore was appointed as Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps taking over from Air Commodore Denis Rixson. Sismore handed command of the ROC to Air Commodore Roy Orrock on 24 May 1973, and was appointed the Director of the Air Defence Team, planning a new UK air defence environment system.
Royal Observatory, Greenwich
The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, moved from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in Greenwich Park, overlooking the River Thames. It played a major role in the history of astronomy and navigation, and is best known for the fact that the prime meridian passes through it, and thereby gave its name to Greenwich Mean Time. The ROG has the IAU observatory code of 000, the first in the list. ROG, the National Maritime Museum, the Queen's House and Cutty Sark are collectively designated Royal Museums Greenwich.
James Dalgleish Pollock
To mark the end of the Second World War the Air Ministry arranged a huge rally at RAF North Weald in Essex from Saturday 23 June to Monday 25 June 1945. Almost 2,000 members of the ROC from all over the United Kingdom were invited to attend the rally. King George VI had already approved the design of an Ensign for the newly formed Royal Observer Corps, the Ensign was RAF blue with the Union Jack in one corner and also bearing the Corps' crest. It was dedicated at a special service held at North Weald on Sunday 24 June 1945. That day the 2,000 observers carried out the first ever uniformed ROC march past to the accompaniment of the RAF Band with the Under Secretary of State for Air, Lord Beatty, taking the salute. The parade then formed into a huge square and the Royal Observer Corps Ensign was presented by Lord Beatty. The Ensign was borne to the drumhead by Observer Lieutenant Pollock VC. In the parade Observer Lieutenant Pollock bore the Ensign flanked by two senior NCO’s at the head of the massed contingent of observers. A filmed record of the day's events is held in the National Archive at the Imperial War Museum, London.
Royal Observer Corps
On 24 August 1939 Chief Constables issued "Mobilisation Notices" to all members of the Observer Corps, with war being declared just ten days afterwards. From 3 September 1939, observation posts and control centres would be manned continuously until 12 May 1945, four days after VE Day.
Percy Bernard, 5th Earl of Bandon
In December 1945 the Earl became the fifth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, taking over from the retiring Air Commodore Finlay Crerar. The Earl assumed command of the Corps at a time when it had been officially stood down from duty and placed on a care and maintenance basis. Although a period of stand-down had been ordered the Corps was not completely disbanded, as it was anticipated that the ROC must continue as an essential component of the UK’s future post-war air defence system.
Borras
Between 1962 and 1992 there was a hardened nuclear bunker, built at Borras for No 17 Group Royal Observer Corps North Wales, who provided the field force in Western Area of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation and would have sounded the four-minute warning alarm in the event of nuclear war and warned the population of Wrexham in the event of approaching radioactive fallout. The building was manned by up to 120 volunteers who trained on a weekly basis and wore a Royal Air Force style uniform. After the breakup of the communist bloc in 1989, the Royal Observer Corps was disbanded between September 1991 and December 1995. However, the nuclear bunker remained and was purchased by R Jones (K-Klass) of Tyn-Twll Farm in the early 1990s and converted to a recording studio. Between the ROC vacating the premises in September 1991 and its new use as a recording studio, the building was under preparation for use as the Home Office North Wales Regional Government Headquarters (RGHQ) although it is unlikely it was ever actually activated as such, given the short timescale.
Royal Observer Corps
Four times a year minor and limited exercises called POSTEX were held on a stop - start basis across three evenings of a week, Monday to Wednesday. Realistic simulation material was provided for realtime simulations of a nuclear attack.
RAF Holmpton
Throughout its years as a Radar Station and through the years of Support Command & CCIS, the site also contained an operations area for the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) and although the Corps was 'stood down' in 1992 with some ROC units remaining as NBC cells until the end of 1995, one last Monitoring Unit remained at RAF Holmpton until December 1997, during the planning and implementation of a new electronic monitoring system. This made RAF Holmpton the very last place in the UK where any members of the Royal Observer Corps ever served, and is a unique part of the site's history. In 1997 this project was abandoned and the site was then maintained under contract until 2003 by AQUMEN Defence. During this time it was used for occasional training by the RAF Regiment & the TA. In 2003 the site was leased for 25 years by the Ministry of Defence to RL(FRAFS)BLC Limited and the day-to-day management passed to HIPPO (The Holmpton Initiative Project Planning Office). By late 2003 plans were underway for a public exhibition on the site which opened to visitors in 2004.
Royal African Corps
The Royal African Corps was a unit in the British Army officially established on 25 April 1804. Fraser’s Corps of Infantry, had been raised for the defense of the Island of Goree, Senegal in August 1800. The regiment was one of several penal battalions composed primarily of deserters and condemned men from the hulks, with some additional Black soldiers being attached to the unit.
Boyd's Automatic tide signalling apparatus
A Royal Observer Corps watchtower was based here during WW2 as the building gave a wide panoramic view of the Firth of Clyde. It is credited with the first visual sighting of Rudolf Hess's Messerschmitt 110 in 1941.
Derek Wood (author)
A lifelong and keen aircraft spotter, Derek was a sparetime volunteer member of the Royal Observer Corps for nearly fifty years and wrote the history of the Corps in his 1975 book "Attack Warning Red : The Royal Observer Corps and the Defence of Britain, 1925 to 1975", later updated in 1992 when the Corps was stood down. Derek joined the Royal Observer Corps in 1947 and served on posts near Chichester, London, and at Cuckfield (north of Brighton) after moving there in the 1960s. As a journalist and aerospace expert he did his utmost to further the Corps' standing in both military and civil areas.
Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post
The first prototype post was built at Farnham, Surrey, in 1956 and on 29/30 September of that year a trial was conducted to ascertain the usefulness of the underground posts. Of the two crews of four personnel engaged in staffing the post during this trial, the second group of four, two ROC and two Home Office Scientific Advisory Branch, were sealed inside with rations bedding and barracks equipment. With a few minor changes, mainly to the hatch and air ventilation louvres, the posts were built as per the prototype. The protection provided by the concrete roof and compacted earth mounded above the post was estimated to reduce any external nuclear radiation by a factor of 1,500:1.
Royal Observer Corps
The true nature of the activities of these "Ghost" ROC personnel remains "classified information", with public access to related documents being denied until 2045.
James Dalgleish Pollock
Pollock volunteered for service the Royal Observer Corps during World War II. He is recorded as being an Observer Officer and full-time Duty Controller in No 33 Aberdeen (Ayr) Group. As far as is known, he was the only ROC Officer in history of the Corps to hold the Victoria Cross. Along with other members of No 33 Group James Pollock stood down on or before 12 May 1945.
Skywatch march
Skywatch is the official regimental march of the Royal Observer Corps.
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its sister papers "The Guardian" and "The Guardian Weekly", whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993, it takes a social liberal or social democratic line on most issues. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
RAF Fiskerton
Between 1962 and 1992 a Headquarters of the Royal Observer Corps was located within the airfield boundary.
Royal Staff Corps
The Royal Staff Corps was a corps of the British Army responsible for military engineering which was founded in and disbanded in . At the time, the Royal Engineers and Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners were administered as part of the Board of Ordnance. Relations between the Ordnance and the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Prince Frederick, Duke of York, were poor and a major motivation for the Corps' creation was to provide a source of engineering expertise under his direct control. It was generally responsible for short-term military engineering works, with the Royal Engineers and Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners remaining responsible for permanent works, but the boundaries between the functions of the corps were blurred. The Royal Staff Corps answered to the Quartermaster-General instead of to the Board of Ordnance. On its disbandment, most of its personnel transferred to the Royal Engineers and the Corps of Royal Sappers and Miners.
Cathcart Wight-Boycott
In July 1961 Wight-Boycott presented a Royal Observer Corps long-service medal to the Battle of Britain Class locomotive "Royal Observer Corps" that had started its service with the Great Western Railway company in December 1948. The ceremony took place at Waterloo station.
Intelligence Corps (United Kingdom)
Although the first proposals to create an intelligence corps came in 1905, the first Intelligence Corps was formed in August 1914 and originally included only officers and their servants. It left for France on 12 August 1914. The Royal Flying Corps was formed to monitor the ground, and provided aerial photographs for the Corps to analyse.
Observer Group
The Observer Group began to conduct reconnaissance exercises on both the Atlantic and the Caribbean, (just as the Fleet Marine Force's Fleet Landing Exercises had done a few years before) by the Marines' Platoon Sergeant Russell Corey. He trained the Observer Group in hands-on work at sea abroad fleet submarines and in the tower for instructions in the Momsen lung. Another Marine by the name of Sergeant Thomas L. Curtis was selected from the Observer Group and was sent to the United Kingdom to train with the British Royal Marines and subsequently was transferred to Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency).
Observer–Reporter
The Observer Publishing Co. was formed July 24, 1902, by John L. Stewart and E.F. Acheson. Stewart’s grandsons, John L.S. Northrop and William B. Northrop, owned and ran the company until their retirements in June 2002, when ownership was transferred to the fourth generation which included the children of John and William. Thomas Northrop served as publisher and president from 2002 until 2018. The paper has had a long involvement and investment in the local community.
Royal Observer Corps
As a result of their role during the Battle of Britain, in April 1941 the Observer Corps was granted the title "Royal" by King George VI, and the "Royal Observer Corps" (ROC) became a uniformed civil defence organisation administered by RAF Fighter Command. Also during that same year, in a change from the policy of the Observer Corps, the ROC undertook to recruit women personnel for the first time. Initially, the only uniforms provided were RAF overalls, ("boiler suits"), with an ROC breast badge, commonly referred to as the "soup plate" because of its shape and size. Standard issue RAF No.2 Battledress uniforms were issued in a rolling programme over the next two years. For the remainder of the war, the ROC would provide an essential part of Great Britain's air defences.