RAF Home Command

Former command of the Royal Air Force

Military unit

RAF Home Command was the Royal Air Force command that was responsible for the maintenance and training of reserve organisations^[2] from formation on 1 February 1939 as RAF Reserve Command with interruptions until it ceased to exist on 1 April 1959.

History

The Command was formed as RAF Reserve Command on 1 February 1939.^[3] It was absorbed into RAF Flying Training Command on 27 May 1940 but reformed again on 1 May 1946.^[3] It was then renamed RAF Home Command on 1 August 1950 and absorbed into RAF Flying Training Command again on 1 April 1959.^[3]

The command's communications squadron, the Home Command Communication Squadron, was formed on 1 August 1950 at RAF White Waltham and disestablished on 1 April 1959, still at White Waltham, becoming the Flying Training Command Communication Squadron RAF.^[3]

The command operated a number of units:^[4]

• Home Command Examining Unit (1950–51 & 1951–59)
• No. 1 Home Command Gliding Centre (1955–59)
• No. 2 Home Command Gliding Centre (1958–59)
• Home Command Gliding Instructors School (1950–55)
• Home Command Instrument Training Flight (1950–52)
• Home Command Major Servicing Unit (1950–54)
• Home Command Modified Officer Cadet Training Unit (1953–56)
• Home Command Training Flight (1950)

Groups of Home Command

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief included:^[3]
RAF Reserve Command

• 1 February 1939 Air Marshal Sir Christopher Courtney
• 28 August 1939 Air Chief Marshal Sir John Steel
• 22 April 1940 Air Vice Marshal Sir William Welsh

Note: The Command was not in existence from May 1940 to May 1946

• 1 May 1946 Air Commodore E D H Davies (Temporary)
• 20 May 1946 Air Marshal Sir Alan Lees
• 1 October 1949 Air Marshal Sir Robert Foster

RAF Home Command

• 1 August 1950 Air Marshal Sir Robert Foster
• 31 Mar 1952 Air Marshal Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman
• 1 October 1952 Air Marshal Sir Harold Lydford
• March 1956 Air Marshal Sir Douglas Macfadyen

See also

• List of Royal Air Force commands

References

1. Pine, L.G. (1983). A dictionary of mottoes (1 ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 226. ISBN 0-7100-9339-X.
2. John D. Rawlings, 'The History of the Royal Air Force,' Temple Press Aerospace, Feltham, Middlesex, 1984, p.180
3. Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – RAF Home Commands formed between 1939 – 1957 Archived 11 January 2011 at the Wayback Machine
4. Sturtivant & Hamlin 2007, p. 165.
5. Barrass, M.B. (2015). "Groups 50 – 67". RAFWeb.org. Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved 30 April 2015.

• Sturtivant, R.; Hamlin, J. (2007). Royal Air Force flying training and support units since 1912. UK: Air-Britain (Historians). ISBN 978-0851-3036-59.