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Green’s Dictionary of Slang

relieving officer n.

also R.O.

[SE relieving officer, an officer appointed by a parish or union to administer relief to the poor]

one’s father.

1857		Lancaster Gaz. 24 Oct. 5/6: Many gents [...] had no father, but they possessed ‘a governor’ or ‘a relieving officer’ .
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 162: A a male parent — not unwilling to meet our wants — [is] ‘a relieving officer.
1879		Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 18 Jan. 4/6: It is grand ‘form’ [...] to call [...] a father a ’relieving officer’.
1883		E.C. Grenville-Murray People I Have Met 227: Now the relieving officer, or, for brevity’s sake, the ‘R.O.,’ was a term of endearment which the Honourable Felix, in common with other young noblemen and gentlemen at Eton, applied to his father.