Catalogue description Records of the Central Department of the Permanent Secretary of State

The Central Department was formed in 1866 by the merger of the Chief Clerk's Branch, the Military Assistant's Branch, and the Library. It came under the permanent under secretary of state, also known as the secretary of the War Office. It dealt with constitutional and other matters which were not already the responsibility of the commander-in-chief, the surveyor general of Ordnance, and the financial secretary.

They included general control of War Office procedures and the conduct of official business; parliamentary and legal business; publications, printing and stationery; the preparation of officers' commissions, courts martial and other warrants, and submissions to the Crown; medals and awards; the Library and records, including the care of confidential papers, and codes and ciphers; grants to churches and schools; the preparation and issuing of Army Lists and Army Regulations; royal commissions and committees; and actuarial calculations.

Following reorganisation in 1904 the department acquired responsibility for servicing the Army Council; press liaison; the Army chaplain; and the preparation of returns and statistics. During the First World War it took on work in connection with casualties (other than officers) and correspondence with enemy countries. After the war it acquired residual responsibility for prisoners of war and officer casualties.

In 1924 financial matters passed to the department. Its functions increased during the Second World War: it acquired the Directorates of Public Relations, Investigation and Statistics, and Army Contracts. The Directorate of Civil Affairs was established within it in 1943. The Claims Commission and the Prisoners of War Information Bureau were dealt with by the department.

After the Second World War the War Office decided to produce a series of studies which would record wartime developments in military administration and equipment. The organisational work was performed by C3 Branch.

Further reorganisation of the War Office after the war brought the Lands Branch to the Secretary's Department. In 1959 the abolition of the Ministry of Supply returned to the War Office responsibility for military research and supply, also within the department.

A Directorate of Civil Affairs was formed in June 1943 to control all matters, other than finance, relating to the civil administration of occupied enemy territories in Europe and the Far East, to prevent interference by the civilian populations of those territories in operations against the enemy, and to fully utilise the contribution of local resources towards such operations.

The function had formerly been carried out by a branch of the Directorate of Military Operations until the increasing numbers of Allied victories made the establishment of a larger administrative body necessary.

The administration of occupied Italian territory in North and East Africa and of British Somaliland was carried out by the chief civilian affairs officers responsible respectively to the Commander in Chief, Middle East and general officer commanding in chief, East Africa.

In October 1945 those sections of the directorate which dealt with Germany and Austria were transferred to the new Control Office for Germany and Austria, which had taken over the relevant functions from the War Office. The directorate was wound up in 1949.