Catalogue description Ministry of Supply Files

This series mainly consists of files opened and closed in the Ministry of Supply for the period of its existence from 1 August 1939 to October 1959. The files principally concern the supply of materials, both raw and manufactured; various firms, committees and factories; overseas trade; and such international bodies as the Economic Commission for Europe and the Organization for European Economic Co-operation.

Control of raw material other than iron and steel passed to the Board of Trade on 1 April 1946; iron and steel followed in 1955. Control of non-ferrous and light metals went to the Ministry of Materials on 12 July 1951. Some files contain material added in these departments. There are also a number of files which originated in the Board of Trade before the Ministry of Supply was set up.

The series also contains a set of minutes and papers of the Explosives Development Policy Committee.

For other files on the scheme from 1946 which used prefix numbers between 1 and 12 see:

Related iron and steel records are in BE

Ministry of Supply, Private Office papers are in AVIA 11

For other files in the scheme using prefix numbers between 200 and 321 see AVIA 22

AVIA 46

AVIA 49

AVIA 50

AVIA 51

AVIA 52

AVIA 53

AVIA 54

AVIA 55

AVIA 56

AVIA 57

For records re-registered by the Ministry of Power and its successors relating to minerals and metals see BT 255