THROUGH
ADVERSITY
The Royal Air Force Regiment is a Corps established by Royal Warrant of His Late Majesty King George VI on 1 February 1942 as an integral part of the Royal Air Force. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Corps.
RAF Regiment officers and NCOs are responsible for advising and planning for the defence of RAF airfields and installations against ground and low level air attack by conventional attack, for measures to mitigate the effects of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and for training all combatant RAF personnel in these skills. RAF Regiment squadrons are allocated, as available, to RAF airfields and installations to provide defence against ground and short-range air
attack so as to maintain their capability to operate effectively in war.
During the Second World War the RAF Regiment served alongside the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom, and in all theatres all over the world as well as being detached to various other support operations. Since then, the RAF Regiment has served wherever the Royal Air Force has operated – in the United Kingdom, Germany, Cyprus, Arabia, Singapore, Malaya, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Borneo, Belize, the Caribbean, Northern Ireland, the Falklands and the Gulf.
Gp Capt Kingsley Oliver enlisted in the RAF Regiment in 1947 and after training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, was commissioned in 1949.
He served with RAF Regiment units in the UK, Germany and the Middle East as well as with the RAF Regiment (Malaya) in the Far East and the Aden Protectorate Levies.
He was an instructor at both the RAF Regiment Depot and the LAA Gunnery School and attended the RAF Staff College and the Joint Services Staff College. After various senior staff appointments in the United Kingdom and overseas theatres he commanded the RAF Regiment Depot at Catterick before becoming Deputy Director of the RAF Regiment in the Ministry of Defence. He retired at his own request in 1978.
He researched and wrote the first published history of the RAF Regiment in 1969.
Kingsley Oliver died on 5 October 2008.
Daily Telegraph Obituary
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