Catalogue description Records of the Defence Departments of the Commonwealth Relations Office

When the Commonwealth Relations Office was formed in 1947, it inherited the Defence Department of the Dominions Office to formulate defence policy for the Commonwealth as a whole and to deal with specific defence matters relating to specific Commonwealth states, including sales and supplies of defence equipment, peaceful and military uses of atomic energy, and civil defence. The Department also dealt with relations with the armed forces and with international defence organisations (NATO, SEATO, the Baghdad Pact etc). In 1950 the Office was organised into divisions, and the Defence Department became part of the Foreign Affairs Division.

In 1954, a new department, the Principal Staff Officer's Department, was created in the Foreign Affairs Division. Its role was to take on the liaison and policy formulation aspects of the Defence Department's work, and it organised visits by high ranking officers from the United Kingdom to the Commonwealth. This left the Defence Department to deal with sale and supply of armaments, developments in atomic energy and civil defence matters.

In 1958 the Defence Department was united with the Western branch of the Western and United Nations Department to form a Defence and Western Department, still in the Foreign Affairs Division. In 1960 the Defence Department was reconstituted, and absorbed the functions of the Principal Staff Officer's Department, which was abolished.

In 1963, a separate Defence Sales Department was established, leaving the Defence Department to deal with general policy matters. The Foreign Affairs Division was abolished, and the two departments were absorbed into the new Mediterranean, South Asia and Defence Division, which also included branch (b) of the Communications Department, the South Asia Department, the Mediterranean Department and the Malta Department.

In September 1965 the two defence departments were reunited as the Defence Department, as part of a new Defence and Commonwealth Policy Division, consisting of the Political Affairs Department and the Commonwealth Policy and Planning Department. This arrangement remained in place until the formation of the Commonwealth Office in 1966.