Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: Who is in charge of RAF Bentley Priory?
RAF Bentley Priory was latterly home to the Defence Aviation Safety Centre, Air Historical Branch (AHB) and RAF Ceremonial. As there was no enduring operational use for RAF Bentley Priory, however, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) released the site as part of its Greater London estate consolidation project, Project MoDEL (Ministry of Defence Estates London). This despite the fact there was a significant lack of military accommodation in the London Area.
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.
The service was drastically reorganized with the creation of Bomber, Coastal, Fighter and Training Commands. The existing ADGB was dissolved and RAF Fighter Command emerged on 14 July 1936. It left Hillingdon House, at RAF Uxbridge on this date and moved to Bentley Priory with its first Air Officer Commanding Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding. Fighter Command Headquarters remained at the Priory until its merger with the other operational commands in 1968.
The station incorporated Bentley Priory, which was originally built in 1766. The house was significantly extended in 1788, by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. It was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. Afterwards the building was used as a hotel and girls' school before being acquired by the RAF in 1926. The site includes a Grade II* listed Officers' Mess and Italian Gardens. These, together with the park, are designated a Registered Garden Grade II. The land south of the house is the Bentley Priory Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest maintained by Harrow Heritage Trust.
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.
The Priory building and 40 acres (comprising the present grounds) were sold to the Air Ministry for a sum thought to be about £25,000. The remainder of the estate, about , were sold to a syndicate who divided it into plots for building purposes. Middlesex County Council bought , including the farm in front of the Priory which formed part of the Green Belt and the present Bentley Priory Open Space.
The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), formed March 1921, is the aerial warfare branch of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). It operates the majority of the ADF's fixed wing aircraft, although both the Australian Army and Royal Australian Navy also operate aircraft in various roles. It directly continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps (AFC), formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF provides support across a spectrum of operations such as air superiority, precision strikes, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, air mobility, and humanitarian support.
The British Chain Home radar defence system was able to warn of enemy aircraft approaching the British coast, but once having crossed the coastline the Observer Corps provided the only means of tracking their position. During the period from July to October 1940, the Observer Corps was at full stretch operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, plotting enemy aircraft and passing this essential information to RAF Fighter Command Groups and Sector Controls. (ROC personnel were deployed in two specific roles: Those in Class A were required to undertake 56 hours duty per week, while Class B personnel undertook up to 24 hours duty per week). The Battle of Britain also saw the introduction of the Blitz campaign and the shift of German bombing from airfields to cities. Again, the Observer Corps provided vital information which enabled timely air-raid warnings to be issued, thereby saving countless lives. The Blitz itself continued until early in the summer of 1941 and bombing continued, albeit on a reduced scale, until March 1945. The Observer Corps formed the cornerstone of Air Marshal Hugh Dowding's air defence system, who stated in a despatch following the Battle of Britain that:
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.
The Cold War bunker was surveyed by English Heritage, who concluded there were other examples of similar bunkers across the country in better condition. In March 2010 the bunker was filled in, leaving only the exterior doors and walls. The RAF Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust supported VSM Estates in the decision to fill in the bunker on the grounds of maintenance costs. The bunker had replaced the Second World War bunker in the 1980s.
No. 48 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps was formed at Netheravon, Wiltshire, on 15 April 1916. The squadron was posted to France in March 1917 and became the first fighter squadron to be equipped with the Bristol Fighter. One of the squadron's commanders was Keith Park, then a Major, who later led No. 11 Group of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain as an Air Vice Marshal. The squadron became part of the Royal Air Force when the Royal Flying Corps merged with the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918. It moved by sea to India during May/June 1919, being based at Quetta. On 1 April 1920 the squadron was disbanded by renumbering it to No. 5 Squadron.
As a result of their role during the Battle of Britain, in April 1941 the Observer Corps was granted the title "Royal" by King George VI, and the "Royal Observer Corps" (ROC) became a uniformed civil defence organisation administered by RAF Fighter Command. Also during that same year, in a change from the policy of the Observer Corps, the ROC undertook to recruit women personnel for the first time. Initially, the only uniforms provided were RAF overalls, ("boiler suits"), with an ROC breast badge, commonly referred to as the "soup plate" because of its shape and size. Standard issue RAF No.2 Battledress uniforms were issued in a rolling programme over the next two years. For the remainder of the war, the ROC would provide an essential part of Great Britain's air defences.
The RCAF had established a presence at the Uplands (Ottawa) Airport, in August 1940, under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, as No. 2 Service Flying Training School began operations. With the war ending, No.2 SFTS closed on 14 April 1945, the Station became home to Headquarters RCAF Maintenance Command, and when Maintenance Command relocated, in 1947, RCAF association with the site ceased. RCAF flying activities resumed at Uplands, with the re-activation of several WW2 fighter squadrons, they designated again for service in Europe. No.439 Squadron was first re-formed in September 1951, at Uplands, as was No.416 Squadron, in September 1952, both departing for in Europe in 1953, they flying the F86 Sabre.
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.
Group C
By the middle of June the squadron had moved to RCAF Station Yarmouth in Nova Scotia, where it was disbanded on September 5, 1945. 428 Squadron was "sponsored" by the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire, a Canadian national women's charitable organization based in Toronto in Ontario, Canada.
The following is a list of Australians who have attained air marshal rank within the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF); that is, service personnel who have held the rank of air chief marshal (four-star rank), air marshal (three-star rank) or air vice marshal (two-star rank). The Royal Australian Air Force was established in 1921 as a separate branch of the Australian military forces. The service was modelled after the Royal Air Force—formed three years earlier—and adopted the same ranking system. Richard Williams, regarded as the "father" of the Royal Australian Air Force, was the service's first member to obtain air-officer rank on being promoted to air commodore (one-star rank) in 1927; he went on to become the first air vice marshal (1935) and air marshal (1940). In 1965, Sir Frederick Scherger became the first officer to be advanced to air chief marshal, one of only four members of the Royal Australian Air Force to obtain this rank as of June 2014. A further twenty-one individuals have reached air marshal in the RAAF and 124 air vice marshal; seven officers have retired with the honorary rank of air vice marshal.
The NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan (NATC-A) trains, equips and advises the AAF. There were three NATC-A air expeditionary training groups embedded with AAF air wings at Kabul International Airport (where the AAF Kabul Air Wing), the Kandahar International Airport (where the AAF Kandahar Air Wing) and at Shindand Air Base (where the AAF Shindand Air Wing) are located as well as detachments at smaller AAF locations such as Herat. The NATO air advisors also serve as liaisons with various IJC regional commands to facilitate and deconflict AAF air missions. NATC-A also trains, equips and supports the ANP's Air Interdiction Unit as the AIU conducts counternarcotic and ANP logistics missions across Afghanistan. All these various efforts are managed on the Coalition side by a one-star level multi-national command headquartered at the Kabul International Airport (where the AAF is headquartered).
Croil became a member of the Canadian Air Board in June 1920 and played a key role in the establishment of air bases at Morley and High River in Alberta. On the establishment of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1924, Croil was one its founder officers. Although the RCAF was described as an air force and had a separate rank structure in line with the British air force, the RCAF was under the authority of the Canadian Army. The following year, in 1925, Croil was posted to Great Britain where he served as a liaison officer with the Royal Air Force. Croil also took a course of training at the RAF Staff College, Andover.
Hosts
On July 2, 1941, the Women's Division of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was created. By the end of the war it totalled some 17,000 members. The RCAF did not train their female recruits to be flying instructors or combatants, although their direct spirit of participation is best described by the division's slogan, "We serve that men may fly". They were initially trained for clerical, administrative and support roles. As the war continued, however, women would also work in other positions like parachute riggers and laboratory assistants, and even in the very male-dominated electrical and mechanical trades. Many RCAF-WD members were sent to Great Britain to serve with Canadian squadrons and headquarters there..
In 1996, the Inspectorate of Flight Safety moved into new purpose-built accommodation at RAF Bentley Priory and the facility's new lecture theatre was named 'The Hayr Theatre' in honour of Hayr who was the first Inspector in 1976 (prior to that date the post had been that of Director). Following the closure of Bentley Priory his picture now hangs in the DARS Course Members Tea bar at RAF Northolt in memory of the Lecture theatre at RAF Bentley Priory.
In the Second World War, Bentley Priory was the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command, and it remained in RAF hands in various roles until 2008.
A final dinner was held for the Battle of Britain veterans in July 2007 to celebrate the role of the building and those who worked in it in preventing Hitler's planned air invasion of Britain in 1940. The sunset ceremony was carried out by the Queen's Colour Squadron and there was a flypast by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a Eurofighter Typhoon. The salute was taken by the Station Commander Squadron Leader Phil Reid, the Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy and Air Commodore (Ret) Pete Brothers, Chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.
The final closure Sunset ceremony took place on 30 May 2008, when the RAF ensign was lowered at RAF Bentley Priory for the last time. The station officially closed the following day, and all remaining lodger units moved to RAF Northolt.
The station incorporated Bentley Priory, which was originally built in 1766. The house was significantly extended in 1788, by Sir John Soane, for John Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. It was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, queen consort of William IV, before her death there in 1849. Afterwards the building was used as a hotel and girls' school before being acquired by the RAF in 1926. The site includes a Grade II* listed Officers' Mess and Italian Gardens. These, together with the park, are designated a Registered Garden Grade II. The land south of the house is the Bentley Priory Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest maintained by Harrow Heritage Trust.