ABSTRACT
During the Cold War, the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a uniformed civilian organisation tasked with preparing for and reacting to a nuclear attack on Britain had one occurred. Although it stood down in the 1990s, the legacy of the ROC lives on through the remaining underground monitoring posts and their associated artefacts. Elements of this material culture now feature in museum collections such as the National Museums Scotland (NMS) and, in some cases, have been returned to posts through restoration projects. This chapter explores the contrasting relationships between different communities of practice and material culture by exploring the differences in approaches to collecting, storing and displaying ROC material culture between the accredited national museum, NMS, to amateur restorers in-situ heritage practices.
