Catalogue description Records of Patronage and of the Personnel Divisions

Until 1930 the patronage work of the Colonial Office and the colonial service was managed by assistant private secretaries of the secretary of state, and from 1910 one of them made it his particular concern. In 1930 it was considered that some sort of uniform direction should be exercised over the various colonial services and so a separate Personnel Division was created in the Colonial Office. It comprised an Appointments Department, concerned with recruitment and training, and a Colonial Service Department, concerned with organisation and discipline, promotions and transfers, conditions of employment and pensions.

The establishment officer, appointed from 1922, was a member of the latter, with a separate Establishment Branch by 1939. By 1945 a separate Establishment Department had been set up and the division had been renamed the Colonial Service Division. In 1948 the Establishment Department became the Establishment and Organisation Department. In 1954 the name of the Colonial Service Division was changed to the Overseas Service Division, and in 1961 it was transferred to the new Department of Technical Cooperation.