ROYAL OBSERVATORY PLOT• 46735 Signals Unit based at Pergamos in Cyprus. As well as operating
ground stations as surrogates forGCHQ, the RAF also has airborne
signals and electronic intelligence capabilities, based during the Cold
War at Watton and Wyton, respectively.ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE (RCMP).Prior to
World War II the RCMP had very limited experience ofcounterespi-
onage, but after the arrival in Ottawa ofCyril MillsfromMI5in
1942 assecurity liaison officer, the RCMP established a Special
Branch and began an exchange program so Canadian personnel could
be trained incounterintelligencetechniques in London. In 1970 the
RCMP created a partly civilian Security Service based on MI5’s
model and continued to cooperate closely with British Intelligence.
In May 1983, following a judicial investigation of misconduct com-
mitted during the investigation of the Front de Libe ́ration Que ́becois,
the Security Service was absorbed into a new organization, the Cana-
dian Security Intelligence Service.See alsoCANADIAN SECUR-
ITY AND INTELLIGENCE.
ROYAL CORPS OF SIGNALS.Although not officially acknowl-
edged as a branch of British Intelligence, the Royal Corps of Signals
has played an important role in the development of Britain’s intelli-
gence capability and has been the principal source of intercept opera-
tors engaged on monitoring target wireless traffic since the regiment
was created out of the Royal Engineers Signal Service in 1913. Dur-
ing World War II, Royal Signals provided the personnel for theSpe-
cial Communications Units(SCUs) andSpecial Liaison Units,
which linked theSecret Intelligence Service’sSection VIII at
Whaddon Hallto fixed stations at Delhi (SCU 2); Dhakurla (SCU
11/12) at Calcutta; Heliopolis, Egypt; andSarafand,Palestine; and
to mobile units attached to the military commands authorized to re-
ceiveultra.
ROYAL OBSERVATORY PLOT.In March 1893 a French tailor,
Martial Boudin, blew off his arm while attempting to dynamite the
Royal Observatory in Greenwich. He died of his injuries, but not be-
fore InspectorWilliam Melvillehad extracted from him the address
of his fellow anarchists in London: a hairdressing salon in Bennett