METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVERS BRANCH CHRONOLOGY

1909 – The first airship – Mayfly 1 was purchased

1912 – First Met Officers trained by State Met Service

1915 – First aircraft carrier – converted battle cruiser HMS Furious

1918 – Royal Naval Air Service and Royal Flying Corps become Royal Air Force

1934 – Suitable seamen recruited to be trained by the Meteorological Officer on board ships. Meteorological Officers trained at Greenwich

1938 – Seaman (QMet) branch was formed with training undertaken at Lee-on-Solent

1942 – Wren(Met) were introduced to carry out duties on shore bases and were trained at Berkeley Square in London, training was then transferred later in that year to Donibristle.

1946 – A new Met School was established at Kete and Met Officers training was transferred from Greenwich.

1947 – Inception of Naval Airman (Met) branch as part of the Fleet Air Arm

1947 – Naval Airman (Met) training began at Kete

1959 – Met training moved to Culdrose

1968 – Study of Oceanography within the Met branch develops.

1971 – Introduction of LA(Met) course for ratings transferred from other branches

1980′s – Naval Airman (Met) and Wrens(Met) become METOC ratings

1990 – Wrens serve at sea for the first time

1999 – CPO(Metoc) NAC Forecasters courses commence

2003 – RNSOMO at Culdrose closes – Met training is transferred to the School of Hydrography at Devonport and integrated into the Hydrography course. Ratings are now known as Operator Mechanics,Hydrography and Meteorology (OMHM)

2005 – Cloud Observers founded

2005 – METOC ratings still serving are known as Legacy Ratings

2008 – Ratings return to being Metoc’s with separate training

2009 – Cloud Observers becomes part of the Fly Navy Federation