Catalogue description Records of the Commander-in-Chief, Military Secretary and Army Council

Historically the supreme command of the Army was vested in the sovereign, who might act as his own Commander in Chief, especially in time of peace. However, from the Restoration in 1660 it became more and more common to appoint a military commander with the title of captain general or Commander in Chief, or both. From 1795 the post of Commander in Chief, at first sometimes known as general or field marshal on the staff, became a permanent one.

The Commander in Chief was the chief military adviser of the Crown and government on matters of strategy and on dispositions and command of forces employed on military service, and was responsible for deciding how the establishment of the Army agreed on by government and parliament would be made up in detail.

The Commander in Chief remained independent of the Secretary of State for War in the reforms of 1854 to 1856; indeed his powers were widened when he became responsible for command and discipline of the Army abroad as well as at home, took over military command of the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Royal Military Academy from the master general of the Ordnance, and various other Army schools and educational establishments passed under his control when the Council of Military Education was formed and subordinated to him.

However, on 4 June 1870 he was made a subordinate of the secretary of state. He was now, as head of the Military Department, chief military advisor to the secretary of state.

In 1895, when the War Office was reorganised into five military departments, that of the Commander in Chief was only one of the five, though he remained the chief military advisor of the secretary of state and was charged with general supervision of the other military departments, and retained direct responsibility for appointments and promotions, mobilisation and intelligence. On 6 February 1904 the post of Commander in Chief was abolished and his powers were vested in the Army Council.

On 6 February 1904 all the powers under the royal prerogative exercised by the Commander in Chief and the Secretary of State for War were vested in the Army Council. This consisted of the secretary of state as president; four military members: the chief of the (Imperial) General Staff, the adjutant general, the quartermaster general, and the master general of the Ordnance; a finance member, the financial secretary and a civil member, the parliamentary under secretary (from 1919 also vice president). The secretary of the War Office (permanent under secretary) was also secretary of the Army Council but did not become a full member until 1922.

During the First World War the constitution of the council was changed by the addition of the director general of military aeronautics, 1916 to 1918; the director general of movements and railways, 1917 to 1919, the surveyor general of supply, 1917 to 1921; and the deputy chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1916 to 1922.

In the preparation for and during the Second World War the constitution of the council was again changed, the following being added: director general of munitions production, 1937 to 1939; director general of the Territorial Army, 1936 to 1939; vice-chief of the Imperial General Staff, from 1940; director general of Army requirements, 1940 to 1942; deputy chief of the Imperial General Staff, from 1942. There was an additional civil member from 1940 to 1942.

In 1947 there ceased to be a financial member, the offices of financial secretary and parliamentary under secretary being combined. There were two permanent under secretaries, each with a seat on the council, from 1942 to 1945. Between 1938 and 1959 there was no master general of the Ordnance. In February 1941 an Army council secretariat was created to serve the council and its committees.

The Army Council was abolished on 1 April 1964, when its place was taken by the Army Board of the Ministry of Defence.

The office of military secretary dates from 1795. For the period up to the changes of 1870 nearly all communications between the Commander in Chief and the War Office and all the purely military business of the Commander in Chief passed through the military secretary.

In 1870 the military secretary and his staff moved into the War Office, becoming the Military Secretary's Division of the Military Department.

This division, which took over some functions formerly dealt with by the Central Department, was responsible for honours, awards and brevets, appointments of colonels and to the staff, army establishments, cases of individual officers, general courts martial, gentlemen-at-arms and yeomen of the guard, confidential reports, appointment, promotion and retirement of combatant officers, the Indian Staff Corps, applications for direct commissions, for the Royal Military Academy and for the Royal Military College, and the reserve of officers.

In 1904 the title of military secretary was changed to military secretary to the Secretary of State for War.

The outbreak of war in 1914 brought with it the recruitment of a large number of new officers, many opportunities for promotion and appointments, the award of war medals and gallantry decorations and a high casualty rate. Responsibility for military secretarial duties in respect of the Territorial Force were taken over in 1916. Like other War Office departments, that of the Military Secretary was reduced and reorganised after the war.

The period of the Second World War again saw an expansion and subsequent contraction in the Military Secretary's Department.

In 1951 the Jacob Committee examined the role of the military secretary. Their recommendation was that the military secretary should remain with his tasks unaltered. This view was echoed in 1956 when a major study was undertaken into the 'Organisation of the Army', prompted by the expected demise of National Service and the consequent reduction in the Army's size. Upon the creation of the unified Ministry of Defence in 1964 the words 'to the Secretary of State for War' were dropped from the military secretary's title.