FINANCE and GENERAL PURPOSES COMMITTEES

These committees - at some periods combined into a single committee - were concerned with the day-to-day management of the Society and routinely dealt with financial matters as well as the the consideration and approval of reports from a wide range of sub-committees. The Finance Committee was in existence sometime prior to 8 July 1895, the date of the earliest surviving minute. The minute books covering the period of the First World War are especially valuable, since those of the Council are missing, and thus represent a unique account of the RSPCA's war-time activities. Thereafter, for 1919-1934, this series includes the minutes of the occasional meetings of a General Purposes Committee (re-named "Standing Committee" from April 1933). These includes minutes of the following ad hoc sub-committees: National War Memorial to Animals; Export of Horses; Injured Animals; Veterinary Treatment of Animals, Regional Organisers. They also contain the minutes of the Policy and Publications Committee which first convened on 28 April 1926, After the war, the Finance and General Purposes committee was re-appointed as a single Standing Committee by decision of Council on 9 October 1945, meeting monthly on a until 1952, when two separate committees were re-established up tp 1970.