Catalogue description Ministry of Supply and successors: British Central Scientific Office and British Commonwealth Scientific Office: Registered Files

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Details of AVIA 42
Reference: AVIA 42
Title: Ministry of Supply and successors: British Central Scientific Office and British Commonwealth Scientific Office: Registered Files
Description:

Registered Files of the British Central Scientific Office and of its successor the British Commonwealth Scientific Office.

Date: 1940-1952
Related material:

For further files of the British Central/Commonwealth Scientific Office see:

AB 1

FV 7

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

British Central Scientific Office, 1941-1944

British Commonwealth Scientific Office, 1944-1952

Physical description: 99 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

Ministry of Defence

Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

The British Central Scientific Office was established in Washington in March 1941, to continue the work of scientific co-operation between Britain and America which had been initiated by the Henry Tizard Mission the previous year. Administration of the office passed from the Ministry of Supply to the Ministry of Production at the end of 1942. By this time the various Service Missions in America were dealing with the scientific aspect of their requirements more or less independently.

The BCSO co-ordinated scientific services common to all departments, and extended its scope to the broader aspects of general scientific research of a long-term nature. In mid-summer 1944 the BCSO merged with the scientific Missions of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa to form the British Commonwealth Scientific Office, which remained in existence after the war.

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