Did the Royal Observer Corps serve in World War II?
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
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.[10] 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.