Catalogue description Histories of Services

This series includes records of service for overseas Indian Civil Service personnel and for other civil servants of gazetted rank.

The series originates in a Government of India circular of 30 November 1872 enquiring into the possibility of each government maintaining records of the character and merit of its officers. After consideration it was decided not to proceed with the compilation of what it was feared would be "character books". Nevertheless the Bombay Government went ahead with the compilation of a History of Services which, when published, allayed the fears of the Government of India and was found to be "a very useful publication". A circular of 14 December 1876 issued to discover whether other governments could emulate Bombay met with an encouraging response and led to a resolution of 9 October 1878 authorising publication. Each government was left free to determine the contents, arrangement and date of issue of its own annual volume. The Government of India Home Department was instructed to compile a History of Services of its own officers and to include those of other departments prepared to furnish the necessary details. In 1885 the India Office, intending to use the Histories of Services as the basis for compiling the India Office List, requested uniform correction to the 1st July for each annual volume as well as production of histories of service for all departments of the Government of India. Finally it was decreed by a resolution of 23 June 1890 that the Service Registers should be abolished and replaced by Histories of Services arranged in a condensed tabular form according to a uniform pattern. At the same time, responsibility for their production was transferred to the Accounts Office of each government.