Catalogue description Cabinet Office: Special Secret Information Centre: Files

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Details of CAB 121
Reference: CAB 121
Title: Cabinet Office: Special Secret Information Centre: Files
Description:

This series consists of files prepared as definitive dossiers on major defence and political issues. The file series were set up by General Ismay, Deputy Secretary on the military side of the War Cabinet and Secretary to the Chiefs of Staff Committee on the Prime Minister's instructions.

The files include extracts from the minutes and papers of the top-level conferences, of the War Cabinet, Defence Committee (O & S), COS Committee, Joint Planners, Joint Intelligence Committee, Combined Chiefs of Staff and its sub-committees, minutes and telegrams by Churchill on military matters, COS telegrams and all relevant telegrams and letters of the service departments, of the Foreign Office and other departments as well as Cabinet War Room daily records and situation reports (SITREPS); drafts of letters, minutes and telegrams were not usually included.
Date: 1939-1955
Arrangement:

Files are divided into

  • Series A: Policy and Strategy, including relations with allies
  • Series B: United Kingdom
  • Series C: USA, Iceland, Central and South America
  • Series D: Europe and Scandinavia
  • Series E: Iberian Peninsula and North Africa
  • Series F: Middle East
  • Series G: Far East and India
Related material:

Many of the documents included or referred to in the SIC files may, however, be found in other CAB series.
Separated material:

Some pieces in this series originally contained NATO documents, which were extracted and replaced with dummy cards when the pieces were transferred to the PRO. The dummy cards state that the extracted documents are retained by the Cabinet Office. With the agreement of the PRO, these extracted NATO documents were destroyed by the Cabinet Office in May 2001. Researchers wishing to seek access to extracted documents should apply to the NATO Archives in Brussels.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Cabinet Office, Special Secret Information Centre, 1941-1945
Physical description: 785 files and volumes
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 1992 Cabinet Office
Accruals: Series is accruing
Administrative / biographical background:

The Special Secret Information Centre (SIC) was set up in June 1941 following a meeting of the Defence (Operations) Committee on 17 June 1941, in which the Prime Minister said that he was anxious that commanders-in-chief should be kept fully informed of the situation, but that he was reluctant to increase the circulation of highly secret papers. Accordingly the Prime Minister gave instructions to organise a Special Secret Information Centre which commanders-in-chief could visit whenever they came to London.

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