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Home Command
RAF Home Command badge
Active	1 February 1939–27 May 1940 1 May 1946–1 April 1959
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Garrison/HQ	Wantage Hall, University of Reading
Motto(s)	Support

RAF Home Command was the Royal Air Force command that was responsible for the maintenance and training of reserve organisations 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. It was absorbed into RAF Flying Training Command on 27 May 1940 but reformed again on 1 May 1946. It was then renamed RAF Home Command on 1 August 1950 and absorbed into RAF Flying Training Command again on 1 April 1959.

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.

The command operated a number of units:

• 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:
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.

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