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