Catalogue description Ministry of Defence: Chief of Defence Staff: Registered Files (CDS, SCDS and ACDS (OPS) Series)

The series mainly comprises files registered in the CDS series. Some file numbers are prefixed by A, N or L and it is suggested that these may have indicated matters which arose from air, navy or land issues. A few files with an original N prefix have been overlaid with a W reference whose meaning is not known.

In July 1958 the White Paper on Central Organisation of Defence (cmd 476) introduced a new Defence Board chaired by the Minister of Defence. The jointly held posts of Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defence were amalgamated and retitled as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in an attempt to clarify the dual nature of the role and to increase its standing.

The CDS was supported by a small staff of military and civil assistants whose functions were defined as serving the CDS in his capacity as principal military adviser to the Minister of Defence, providing briefings for the CDS in his capacity as chairman for the meetings of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, and providing advice on military matters for the Minister or for any of the civil divisions of the Ministry of Defence. The Staff of the Chief of Defence Staff was wound up in 1983.