Records of the Appointments Department and Pay Department

Records of the Appointments Department and Pay Department relating to the recruitment of staff in the United Kingdom on behalf of overseas principals, arrangements for their travel to and from postings and payment of their salaries and allowances.

CAOG 2 contains representative papers from the various Appointments departments and branches, registered and personal files are in CAOG 13. Files of the Pay Department are in CAOG 15

• Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, Appointments Department, 1954-1971
• Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, Overseas Personnel Department, 1971-1997
• Crown Agents for the Colonies, Appointments and Miscellaneous Department, 1915-1918
• Crown Agents for the Colonies, Appointments Branch, 1900-1915
• Crown Agents for the Colonies, Appointments Department, 1915-1954

Topics

Pay and pensions

In 1900 an Appointments Branch was formed to deal with work relating to the advertisement of, interviews for and appointments to posts in colonial governments. During the First World War the branch became the Appointments and Miscellaneous Department but following the introduction of a formal departmental structure in 1918 this department was split and the Appointments Department was established.

The Second World War saw an initial decrease in business for the department as new postings in and sailings to the colonies decreased, until heavy recruitment into the Palestine Police reversed this trend. The post war period was busy as demand for staff of every kind was high in the colonial governments. As well as this appointments work, the number of passages booked also rose dramatically, as new appointees left, while others who had been in post throughout the war took home leave. In 1971 the department was renamed the Overseas Personnel Department.