The Ministry of Defence has confirmed it does not support calls to retrospectively classify members of the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) as regular or reserve members of the UK Armed Forces.
In response to a written parliamentary question from Jamie Stone MP (Liberal Democrat – Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross), Veterans Minister Al Carns reiterated that the ROC was always a civilian organisation, despite its uniformed structure and operational contribution during the Cold War.
“The Royal Observer Corps was a uniformed civilian organisation,” Carns explained, adding that the body was “subject to the provision of the Ministry of Defence’s civilian pay, staff and travel regulations.”
Operationally, the ROC came under the control of the Home Office, not the Ministry of Defence, and its Commandant was responsible to both departments for different aspects of the organisation’s function. Carns clarified that even in interactions with the MoD, the ROC was “treated on the same terms as Civil Servants rather than Service Personnel.”
Consequently, the government sees “no rationale which would justify the retrospective recategorisation of past members of the ROC… as having been Regular or Reserve members of the Armed Forces.”
However, Carns emphasised that this administrative distinction “in no way diminishes the Government’s admiration of those who performed such a vital role during the Cold War.”
The Royal Observer Corps was established by Royal Warrant in 1947 and served as Britain’s front line in aircraft recognition and, later, nuclear fallout monitoring during the Cold War. It was stood down in 1995.
