Records of the Military Committees of the East India Company and Council of India

These mostly comprise minutes, reports and correspondence of the Company's Committee of Correspondence, Political and Military Committee and Military Seminary Committee. Some later records of the Council of India's Military Committee are also included. There are 10 sub-series. Additional information on the sub-series will be found below.

IOR/L/AG/23/2/1-70 for records of the Military (late Lord Clive) Fund 1769-1882. IOR/D/1-145 for Minutes (1784-1834), Memoranda (1700-1834) and Reports (1719-1834) of the Committee of Correspondence which include military matters.

Unrestricted

The East India Company's Committee of Correspondence was the central body that dealt with the Company's main departmental functions, i.e. public, political, military, revenue, judicial, law, separate and ecclesiastical. The Committee of Correspondence consisted of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Court of Directors ex officio and nine senior Directors. Alongside its business in the other departments, the Committee of Correspondence dealt with the military business of the East India Company, apart from the management of the Military Fund. The Committee was responsible for dealing with incoming official information from each Indian presidency's military department and also for the drafting of despatches or replies to these incoming letters before they were submitted to the Court of Directors for approval. The Committee of Correspondence reported the number of civil, military and medical servants necessary for keeping up the Company's establishments abroad, and on the applications of all such servants for leave of absence, or for permission to return to their respective presidencies. The Committee took decisions on all representations and applications for redress of grievances or claims for money by Company's servants. It attended to various subjects in connection with the Royal Navy, and of British Army troops in India. The recruiting department was also under the Committee of Correspondence. A Military Secretary and three Assistant Secretaries were appointed in 1809 to cope with additional work resulting from the augmentation of the army and enhanced scale of expenditure. In 1809 the Company's Military seminary at Addiscombe was opened. A Military Seminary Committee, consisting of the six next senior Directors to those serving on the Committee of Correspondence, was created to govern the seminary and to oversee the appointment of general service cadets and assistant-surgeons. In 1834 after the Company's main commercial activities were wound up, the committee structure was reorganised. The standing committees of the Court of Directors were reduced to three - Finance and Home, Political and Military, and Revenue, Judicial and Legislative. The military business of the new Political and Military Committee included responsibility for correspondence on all military related matters such as military expenditure in India and related contracts; fortifications, military buildings, cantonments, hospital expenses, matters relating to the depot at Chatham and the supply of military stores for India. It dealt with correspondence with other government departments and individuals on military matters; the number and strength of the army in India and on personnel matters such as recruitment, appointments, pay, allowances, promotion, clothing, courts martial leave, retirement, pensions, soldiers' effects; remittances and other claims. After 1858 the Company's European regiments in India were abolished and the Military Seminary at Addiscombe was closed. In place of the Political and Military Committee, the Military Secretary now reported to the Military Committee of the advisory Council of India. The Military Committee of the Council of India discussed military business before placing questions before the Secretary of State in Council, but no separate minutes were kept.