them effectively members of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAuxAF), with protected rights, and closer links were made with the war-appointable flights of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). Despite having successfully built upon the extensive NBC reporting trials, undertaken with the RAF Regiment and meeting full NATO standards and evaluations (STANAGs and OPEVALs), the conclusion reached by the UK MoD was that retention of the Corps in its NBC Cell role was "desirable, but not essential in the existing format". As a consequence, the remaining part-time members of the ROC were stood-down on 31 December 1995, after a laying-up ceremony for the 1991 ROC Banner in the Rotunda at RAF College Cranwell in Lincolnshire on 8 Dec 1995. The ROC Banner remains on display in the RAFC Cranwell rotunda alongside other stood-down Air Force units and squadrons that are subject to liability for reactivation in the future. Headquarters ROC at RAF Bentley Priory finally closed on 31 March 1996 after all administrative winding-up tasks were completed. The last Commandant of the Corps was Air Commodore Martin Widdowson. Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command, under Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding with Air Commodore A D John Cunningham as his Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) and Air Commodore N. J. Gill as Air Officer Administration (AOA), consisted of 76 officers, 71 airmen and 84 civilians (including the 70 Observer Corps personnel). The units administered directly by HQ Fighter Command were No 11 (Fighter) Group, No 77 (Air Co-operation) Group and the Royal Observer Corps (from April 1941). In November 1938, No 3 Balloon Centre RAuxAF under command of Group Captain AE Bald was formed at RAF Stanmore Park and came under the operational umbrella of Dowding. The location details for the 'barrages' were planned at Bentley Priory. Before World War II broke out in 1939, the Priory underwent many changes. Chief among these was the hurried adaptation of the two largest rooms (now the anteroom and the Ladies room) into the Operations Room and the Filter Room – moved from its original location in the Crypt bar; the classrooms in the east Wing were converted into accommodation. Externally, brown and green paint were sprayed over the outside of the building including the clock face, and many of the windows were blacked out. Dug-outs were built and sandbags deployed to protect personnel. In 1939, the magnificent conservatory was pulled down and