Catalogue description Records of the Chief Clerk's and General Departments

The chief clerk, originally simply the most senior among the clerks, performed various general and accounting duties at the War and Colonial Department, though the office was temporarily abolished between 1833 and 1839. It achieved departmental status between 1843 and 1849, and the chief clerk was still performing some of the general business of the Colonial Office in the 1860s. When the Accounts Branch was established in 1869 it was placed under his superintendence, but by 1874 it had become independent as the Financial Department.

In 1870 a separate General Department was set up with responsibility for governors' pensions, naval cadetships, uniforms, the drafting of formal instruments, establishment matters and, from 1873, circular despatches. The chief clerk remained responsible for honours, including the order of St Michael and St George, with which he had been concerned since 1843, the management of the secret service fund and the internal arrangements of the office. In 1894 the General Department was merged with the Emigration Department. The latter was abolished in 1896, the General Department being merged with the Financial Department as the General and Financial Department under the chief clerk.

In 1901 it was renamed the General Department, with a wide range of miscellaneous functions. From 1906 to 1907 it was briefly called the Chief Clerk's Department. In 1907 the General Department was reconstituted and charged with various matters common to all crown colonies formerly dealt with by The Chief Clerk's Department. The office of chief clerk was abolished in 1917 but the General Department continued.

In 1934 the General Department became the General Division and was split into two departments: one handled defence, international relations, mandates, labour, education, public health, communications and currency and retained the old name; the second was the Economic Department. In 1938 a Social Services Department and a military staff were added. By 1940 the division also included a separate Defence Department with the military staff attached.

After the war the Economic and Social Services Departments became independent while the Defence Department merged with the General Department in 1948 to form the Defence and General Department. In 1955 this was split into two departments, and in 1961 the General Department merged with the International Relations Department as the International Relations and General Department.

Responsibility for registering papers in the Colonial Office was first given to an individual when a Registrar was appointed in 1822, and the first series of modern Colonial Office registers begin. In 1833, the post of Registrar was fused with that of the Chief Clerk, and control of registration passed to the four departmental clerks. Following the investigations of the Trevelyan - Northcote Committee, a Registrar was reappointed in 1850 and central registration of Colonial Office in and out correspondence resumed.

The Registrar's responsibilities grew to include telegraphic communications with overseas posts, first as Registrar and Controller of the Cypher Section, and later as Registrar and Controller of the Code and Cypher Section. In 1949, the title was amended to that of Registrar and Controller of the Telegraph Section, and in 1950 the responsibilities were split, the existing post-holder becoming the Controller of Overseas Communications and a new post of Registrar being established. The separate post of Registrar was abolished in 1962.