Colonial Service
The Colonial Service was the British government service which administered Britain's colonies and protectorates, under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Colonial Office in London.
Before the 1930s there was no unified Colonial Service and not even any unified sub-services. Each colony and protectorate had its own services and prospective officers applied directly to each one. If they wanted to transfer to another colony or protectorate they had to apply separately to the government of that entity. After the 1930s there was a unified Colonial Service, with sixteen sub-services, and each officer was a member of both the appropriate sub-service of the Colonial Service and also of the civil service of the territory in which he served.[1]
The Colonial Service amalgamated with Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in the late 1960s.
Size
The Colonial Service grew substantially from 1900, when there were only 1,000 overseas positions, through the period immediately following World War II when the number had grown to about 10,000. This largely reflected the increased numbers of technical and professional staff employed in medical, educational, agricultural, mining and other specialist areas (see "Services" below). The disbanding of the separate Indian and Sudan Civil Services, in 1947 and 1956 respectively, led to an influx of former officials who sought to continue their careers in a Colonial Service which reached its maximum size of 18,000 in 1957. Thereafter it diminished rapidly with the granting of independence to colonial territories peaking during the early 1960s.
Ranks
Commissioned into the Colonial Service, the ranks and positions were as follows-
- District Officer Cadet
- Assistant District Officer (awarded if suitable after two year's probation[2])
- District Officer
- District Commissioner
- Provincial Commissioner
The most senior overseas positions were those of colonial governors, which numbered about 40 in the 1930s. These were usually filled for five year periods with appointments being made from officers who were no older than 55 (the usual retirement age being 60). The governorships were divided into four grades, according to the size and economic or political importance of the colony concerned. A few colonial governorships such as that of Gibralter were reserved for naval or military officers.
Services
It was technically divided into sixteen separate services:
- Colonial Administrative Service
- Colonial Agricultural Service
- Colonial Audit Service
- Colonial Chemical Service
- Colonial Customs Service
- Colonial Education Service
- Colonial Forest Service
- Colonial Geological Survey Service
- Colonial Legal Service
- Colonial Medical Service
- Colonial Mines Service
- Colonial Nursing Service
- Colonial Police Service
- Colonial Postal Service
- Colonial Survey Service
- Colonial Veterinary Service
Of these separate services, the non-specialist Colonial Administrative Service constituted an elite of generalists who provided commissioners and governors. In his history of the Colonial Service Anthony Kirk-Green groups this class as mainly public and grammar school leavers who studied history, English and modern languages at university. Entrance was by way of the same competitive examinations as for the Home Civil Service and the Diplomatic Service, although stress was placed on assessments of character and motivation made in the course of selection interviews. The remaining fifteen services were drawn from applicants with specialist professional qualifications or relevant experience.
Notes
Further reading
- Kirk-Green, Anthony (1999). On Crown Service: A History of HM Colonial and Overseas Civil Services, 1837-1997. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. Google Books link
- Colonial records - National Archives
See also
References
- Colonial Office, Colonial Regulations, 1945
_(Tudor_Crown).svg){kind=small} | This article related to government in the United Kingdom or its constituent countries is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |