IN COMMAND:
A helping hand ready for Armageddon
AN Air Force blue uniform, with bright brass buttons and a “Dry Clean Only” label, hangs in the York bunker. It belongs to Jim Millington, the last Royal Observer Corps Commandant for the nine years before it closed in 1991.
Now 81 and living in Alwoodley, Leeds, he took part in all the “rehearsal” exercises staged at weekends three or four times a year, with more than 500 people involved across Yorkshire.
“They were very, very busy times, but I wouldn’t say they were exciting as such; they were just busy,” he says. “There was a lot of noise, with the ventilation plant on all the time and 60 people in there. Looking back, it was amazing what meals – casseroles, not just canned or dried food – could be created in that kitchen.”
Was it strange to be out of contact with the outside world for 12 or 24 hours at a stretch? “Yes, but we got used to it and didn’t give it another thought. It was as authentic as it could have been made.”
He first got involved as a volunteer with the Royal Observer Corps when his work with British Telecom took him to another bunker, at Yeadon, near Leeds Bradford Airport. “I could see the dangers of the Cold War to the British population and thought if I could do something to help protect people, I should do it,” he says.
When the Yeadon bunker closed in 1968, he moved to the York one, which at that time was part of a campus of government offices, training buildings and stores (all since demolished and replaced by the present housing estate).
“People look round the bunker today and say how old-fashioned the technology was, but it was the leading stuff of its day. Daft as some of the procedures may now seem, they would have worked.”
His involvement has continued since retirement. “I’ve spent a great deal of time with English Heritage sourcing bits and pieces to help create an authentic atmosphere,” he says. “They’ve done very, very well.”
And how does he feel about the antinuclear campaigns? “Well, they had their own ideas, but our philosophy was that we weren’t combative in any way. We were there to help.”