The Royal Observer Corps

The Royal Observer Corps was a uniformed volunteer organisation that enjoyed a long association with the Royal Air Force. The badge of the Royal Observer Corps depicts a beacon lighter of Elizabethan times; these beacon lighters were recruited from the local population and were organised and paid by the County Sheriff, to care for and light the warning beacons in the event of approaching danger, time enough for Sir Francis Drake to finish his game of bowls. The motto of the Royal Observer Corps is: Forewarned is Forearmed.

Headquarters Royal Observer Corps first came to RAF Bentley Priory in July 1936, along with Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, who had been appointed AOC-in-C of the newly formed Fighter Command and of which the Observer Corps was to play an integral part. At this time, the Observer Corps’ first Commandant, Air Commodore E A Masterman retired and was replaced by Air Commodore Warrington-Morris, formerly Commandant of Southern Area Observer Corps, also located at RAF Bentley Priory at that time, but soon to relocate to RAF Uxbridge from where Headquarters Royal Observer Corps had so recently moved. From the beginning of World War II through to 1955, the function of the Royal Observer Corps was to report all aircraft movement over land and the offshore sea to their respective centres and from where the information was relayed to the RAF Reporting and Control Network. During WW II, this service was provided 24 hours a day.

The Observer Corps was one of the cornerstones of Lord Dowding’s air defence system and he said later in his despatch on the Battle of Britain: “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.”
As the Air Chief Marshal in charge of the air defence of London and South-East England in 1940, Sir Keith Park was the field commander of the most critical area of the country during the Battle of Britain. Using a radar defence system and information gathered from the Observer Corps, Park carefully followed the movements of the bombers and fighters, constantly feeding information to his intercepting squadrons.

Post 1955 the Royal Observer Corps went into protected accommodation and undertook the monitoring of radio active fallout in the event of a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom, the resultant warnings would have been issued to the military and civilian population alike. The bulk of the Royal Observer Corps, approximately 9,600 members, were stood-down on the 30 September 1991 and a much smaller cadre remaining on 31 December 1995. With the exception of 69 Whole-time ROC Officers, all members of the Royal Observer Corps were volunteers.

The Royal Observer Corps Banner, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Review of the Corps at RAF Bentley Priory on 25 July 1991, is lodged for safe keeping in the rotunda of College Hall, RAF Cranwell. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll was Air-Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Observer Corps and today is patron of the Royal Observer Corps Association.

Link to the Royal Observer Corps Association web site.