Catalogue description War Cabinet and Cabinet: Home Defence Executive: Secretary's Files

Original numerical sequence of creating body has been followed

The Home Defence Executive was set-up on 10 May 1940 to supervise a drastic overhaul of measures for the defence of the UK.

The Chiefs of Staff had previously examined the question of seaborne and airborne attack on the UK in 1937 [see Committee of Imperial Defence 248A in CAB 3/6] and November 1939 [see COS(39)125 in CAB 80/5], and had recommended certain precautionary measures, mainly against the dangers arising from air attacks, which included the appointment of twelve regional commissioners with powers to co-ordinate local schemes with military needs.

Reviewing the situation on 10 May 1940, the Chiefs of Staff issued a directive [see WP(40)153 in CAB 66/7] for ensuring that plans to meet seaborne and airborne attacks on the UK were co-ordinated by the Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces (C in C, HF), and the regional commissioners. Their recommendations included the immediate setting of a Home Defence Executive under the chairmanship of C in C, HF, with a membership composed of Air Officers Commanding-in-Chief Bomber, Fighter and Coastal Commands, the Deputy Chief of Operational Staff of the Ministry of Home Security, as the department concerned with Civil Defence, and representatives of HM Admiralty and Air Ministry. The directive specified various aspects of the problem of defence which deserved particular attention, including security of communications, preparation of demolition plans, evacuation of the civil population and combating of Fifth Column activities.

As an executive body, the Home Defence Executive proved unwieldy, and following a memorandum dated 27 May 1940 [see WP(40)173 in CAB 66/8], the Lord President of the Council stated that it should no longer be responsible to Chiefs of Staff Committee, and in June 1940 the Home Defence Executive became a co-ordinating body under the chairmanship of Sir Findlater Stewart, who also acted as Chief Civil Staff Officer to C in C, HF, with Civil Servants appointed from the Ministry of Home Security and the Ministry of Transport.