Royal Observer Corps - First World War

First World War

The ROC can trace its roots to the First World War and the requirement for a warning system to bolster UK defences, predominantly over south east England, against bombing raids by Zeppelin airships of the German Empire's Luftstreitkräfte. A system of observation posts and observers was organised, with a network of approximately 200 posts established in strategic areas. Initially these posts were manned by British Army personnel, who were in turn replaced by Special (Police) Constables, and posts were coordinated on an area basis with telephone communications provided between themselves and their associated anti-aircraft defences.

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 would extended eastwards towards the Kentish and Essex coasts.

The Metropolitan Observation Service met with some success and although not fully operational until the late summer of 1918, (the last German bombing raid taking place on 19 May 1918), the lessons learned were to prove invaluable for future developments in the field of aircraft observation, identification and reporting. Major General E B Ashmore is often considered to have been the founder of what would eventually become the Royal Observer Corps.