[1] The UKWMO was established in 1957 and funded by the Home Office and used its own premises which were mainly staffed by Royal Observer Corps (ROC) uniformed full-time and volunteer personnel as the fieldforce.

Its emblem-of-arms was a pair of classic hunting horns crossing each other, pointed upwards, with the enscrolled motto "Sound An Alarm", a title also used for the latter of two contemporary public information films (the earlier one was called "Hole in the Ground").

The members of the warning team were recruited from mainly local secondary school science teachers, or commercial engineers and technicians with a scientific education and background.

The Director UKWMO was located at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Command (UK RAOC) at RAF Booker tasked with instigating the four-minute warning.

Warnings were instantly distributed around the country by the Warning Broadcast System via 250 Carrier Control Points located at major police headquarters and 17,000 WB400 (later WB1400) carrier receivers in armed forces headquarters, hospitals, post offices, ROC posts and private homes in remote rural areas where hand-operated sirens replaced the power sirens in the urban towns.

Sparetime warning team members were activated, through a rehearsed transition to war telephone calling card procedure, by wholetime Royal Observer Corps officers located at the twenty five group headquarters.

Four times a year minor and limited exercises called POSTEX were held on a stop – start basis across three evenings of a week, Monday to Wednesday.

Updated warning equipment was installed in most government buildings, nuclear bunkers, armed forces HQs, police and fire stations and private houses in remote areas.