Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that answer the question.
Query: When was the Royal Observer Corps established?
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.
Evatt's obituary in the "British Medical Journal" observed that he would be "chiefly remembered for his persistent advocacy of the formation of the medical officers of the army into a Corps". His efforts in that regard began at least as early as 1884, when he read a paper to the Royal United Services Institute calling for a series of reforms. The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was eventually established in 1898. When the Royal Army Medical College opened in 1907, Evatt was one of four officers whose names were placed on a memorial dedicated to those who had been instrumental in the creation of the RAMC.
Aircraft Detection Corps Newfoundland Aircraft Identity Corps (Canada) Civil Air Patrol (USA) Ground Observer Corps (USA) Luftmeldekorpset Volunteer Air Observers Corps (Australia)
In 1986 the Royal Observer Corps Association (ROCA) was established[11] 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.[12]
Between 1 March 1929 when he retired from the RAF and 1 April 1936, Masterman was the Commandant of the Observer Corps and was the first former RAF officer to hold this appointment. Headquarters Royal Observer Corps was located at Hillingdon House, RAF Uxbridge, only relocating to RAF Bentley Priory after Masterman retired. He was succeeded as Commandant Observer Corps by Air Commodore Alfred Warrington-Morris.
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.
Initially part of Indian Army Corps of Signals which was established by Royal Engineers in 1911, its members and officers closely allied itself with Royal Corps of Signals, actively participated shoulder-to-shoulder in World War II, at a time when Germany invaded Great Britain. It came to existence on 14 August 1947, when Indian Army Corps of Signals was divided into two parts by the British Government, with one part remaining in India while other units formed what is now known as Corps of Signals in Pakistan. It was the brain-child of British Army's intelligence officer Major-General R. Cawthome who also founded and established the premier "ISI" in 1948. The Corps was supplemented with Royal Corps of Signals officers to assist into building the Corps to working strength. As soon as the Pakistan Army's signal officer were trained, the officer quickly replaced the British signal officers and closely allied the Corps with U.S. Army Signal Corps where the U.S. Signal Corps furthered privded advanced military training to Corps of Signals.
The Royal Observer Corps Orlit Post is an observation post used by the Royal Observer Corps during the Cold War to recognise enemy aircraft. Many Orlit Posts can be found near ROC Monitoring Posts.
List of Royal Observer Corps / United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation Posts List of ROC Group Headquarters and UKWMO Sector controls AWDREY Commandant Royal Observer Corps Operational instruments of the Royal Observer Corps RAF Bentley Priory Royal Observer Corps Medal Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post Skywatch march United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
To raise money for the Royal Observer Corps Benevolent Fund.
The Royal Observer Corps Medal is a long service medal awarded in the United Kingdom to members of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) relating to service between 1941 and December 1995, when the ROC was stood down. The medal was initiated in 1950 by HM King George Vl.
To help ex-Corps members and their dependants who are in need, to obtain assistance from the Royal Observer Corps Benevolent Fund.[13]
To give support to any future re-establishment of the Royal Observer Corps as a voluntary organisation.
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.
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.
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 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; a serving RAF Air Commodore.
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. 
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.
The Royal Navy established HM Naval Seaplane Training School on 30 July 1917 at Lee-on-Solent; the unit was responsible for the training of seaplane pilots and observers. When the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps merged on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force, the school was renamed No. 209 Training Depot.
Throughout the early 1920s pilots and observers of seaplanes were trained at Lee-on-Solent under a variety of names; from 1921 the base was renamed the RAF Seaplane Training School, and from 1923, the RAF School of Naval Co-operation. Although the school now concentrated on observer training, from 1925 all naval aircrew were provided by the RAF, and training of naval officers as observers ceased. During this period the primary training aircraft was the Fairey IIID.
In July 1961 the Commandant ROC Air Commodore Wight-Boycott presented a Royal Observer Corps Medal to the Battle of Britain Class locomotive no.34050 "Royal Observer Corps", which had commenced service with the Southern Railway company in December 1946; the ceremony taking place at Waterloo station. The medal was mounted in a glass fronted cabinet in the driver's cab and the locomotive's side was repainted with a representation of the medal and its ribbon. These were displayed until the engine was retired from service and scrapped in the late 1960s. However, the original nameplate and front badge were recovered and displayed in the entrance hall of RAF Bentley Priory, (HQ ROC), until 1996 when they were transferred to the RAF Museum, Hendon.
The Royal Observer Corps established an annual four-man recognition team, with keen competition amongst observers for selection. The team continued to compete annually in the UK's "Joint Services Aircraft Recognition Competition" and in international competitions with other NATO countries until 1991, despite aircraft recognition being dropped as an operational role for the Corps in 1957. There was also a hard-fought annual competition with the Luftmeldekorpsett, the Danish Ground Observer Corps.
When uniforms were issued to the Royal Observer Corps there was a surplus of Royal Armoured Corps black berets that were given to the unit.
The Museum covers the history of Army aviation from the Balloon sections of the Royal Engineers, through the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps in 1912 and Air Observation Post (AOP)Squadrons. It brings the story up to date with the establishment of the Army Air Corps in 1957, from the merger of the Glider Pilot Regiment and the AOP Squadrons.
Following his retirement as Commandant, Air Commodore Masterman immediately rejoined the Royal Observer Corps as a civilian part-time volunteer with the rank of Observer Captain and served as the ROC's Western Area Commandant between 1937 and 1942, although by special permission of Warrington-Morris, he was permitted to wear his RAF Air Commodore's uniform and rank braid after April 1941 when the Observer Corps became the Royal Observer Corps and part of RAF Fighter Command.
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.