Catalogue description Records of Establishment Departments of the Commonwealth Relations Office

From the creation of the Commonwealth Relations Office in 1947 until 1952 responsibility for all establishment and organisational matters within the Office was vested in an Establishment Department. After the incorporation of the India Office into the Commonwealth Relations Office, the Office was organised on a divisional basis, and an Establishment and Organization Division was created consisting of just the Establishment Department.

In 1952, aspects of the work of the Accountant General's Department of the Finance and General Division concerning administration of pensions and other benefit funds were transferred to the Establishment and Organization Division as Accountant General's Department branch I (branch II remaining in the Finance and General Division). In 1955, the two branches were reunited, but under the joint administration of the Establishment and Organization and the Finance and General Divisions.

In 1956 the Finance and General Division was abolished, and the Accountant General's Department became entirely part of the Establishment and Organization Division. In 1957 responsibility for libraries and the Indian Records Section was added from the Political Division. Also in 1957, the Communications Department, responsible for matters relating to air, sea, rail, shipping, telegraphic and postal communications, and records, within the Commonwealth, was moved from the Political Division to the Establishment and Organization Division.

In 1960, responsibility for libraries was absorbed into the Communications Department, and the Establishment Department was split into two: a Personnel Department; and an Administration Department. In 1962, an Inspectorate was added to the Division to inspect overseas posts.

The Division was abolished in 1963, and for a time the Office operated without a divisional structure, departments reporting directly to under-secretaries.

Following the Plowden Report of February 1964 (Cmnd. 2276), which recommended that Britain's three overseas services (the Commonwealth Service, the Foreign Service and the Trade Commission Service), should be unified, a single Service, entitled Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service, was established in January 1965.

The Communications Department was split into two, Communications (a) in the Trade Division, and Communications (b) in the Mediterranean, South Asia and Defence Division. The Personnel, Administration and Accountant General's Departments and the Inspectorate were abolished, and the administration of all of the Diplomatic Service posts, at home or overseas, was handled by a new Diplomatic Service Administration Office.

The head of the new Office was a Chief of Administration, responsible to both the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations. His combined Office was formed by amalgamating the administrative departments of the Foreign and Commonwealth Relations Offices, and was organised into nine departments. Of these, the Finance Department had joint heads, one for each of the former departments, and the Personnel Department retained some distinctive features of the predecessor organisations. The remainder were truly integrated.

An Accommodation department dealt with official accommodation at home and abroad. The Archives department handled registration and control of current and archive records. A Communications Department dealt with communications between Diplomatic Service posts and London. The Conferences, Services and Supplies Department dealt with general office administration and conference organisation, and the Establishment Department dealt with structure, organisation and conditions of service in the Diplomatic Service. There was a Security Department, and an Inspectorate.