Papers of the Secretary to the Church Commissioners

Papers in CC/SEC belonged to the First Church Estates Commissioner or to the Secretary to the Church Commissioners. The files originated from the First Floor at 1 Millbank, Westminster, also known as the 'Private Office'. They reflect the Secretary's dealings in five principal areas of the Church Commissioners work: Property, Finance, Internal, Church Bodies, and the Private Sector. They are not 'Official' files, and though the content may duplicate or overlap with that of the Official File series, the papers form a discrete Class of their own. Although the occasional file contains material from before the Church Commissioners were created on 1 April 1948, in general, a file which ended before this date is reckoned to be part of the papers of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (Order no. ECE). A file which continued beyond 1 April 1948, even if it began in the ECE period, is reckoned to be part of Church Commissioners papers, since it was used and added to by the Church Commissioners' Secretariat. However, this ruling is not adhered to if it would mean breaking up a series of files. First Church Estates Commissioners: Sir Philip Baker Wilbraham (1939-1955); Sir Malcolm Trustram Eve (1956-1969); Sir Ronald Harris (1970-1982); Sir Douglas Lovelock (1983-1993). Secretaries to the Church Commissioners: Sir James Brown (1938-1955); Mortimer L Warren (1956-1964); Ronald Harris (1965-1969); K S Ryle (1970-1975); S P Osmond (1976-1980); Kenneth Lamb (1981-1985); J E Shelley (1986-1992)