Treasury: Books of Out-letters to Civil Service Commission

T 113

1914-1920

This series consists of two volumes of the carbon copies of letters sent from the Treasury to the Civil Service Commissioners from January 1914 to October 1920.

Up to the 1930's the letters were of an official and formal type and dealt with at a high-level, usually by the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury. After 1930 Treasury correspondence was often dealt with at a lower level, on a semi-official basis. Not every letter sent out was bound and the out-letter books became less of a complete record of all letters sent. The books were bound until 1955, when it became too costly to keep binding and retaining them.

The subjects include:

• Finance
• Appointments and pay of staff in government departments and establishments including those in Scotland, Ireland and the diplomatic service
• Examination tests
• The position of civil servants called up for military service during the War of 1914-1918
• Civil service recruitment after World War 1

The books were arranged from 1667 by subject, but the contents varied depending on which Treasury division dealt with a subject or department. The out-letters may be different Treasury series, depending on the date and divisional responsibilities.

The collection of out-letters up to 1920, the date of the new Treasury registration system, were deposited in the Public Record Office, although some of the volumes continue slightly beyond that date.

In relation to the destruction of the post-1922 records see T 199/493

Further information can be found in Durrant's Index, a list of out-letter books and their arrangement from 1800, in: OBS 1/1339

The records after 1922 were destroyed under Registry Instruction 3/55 of 11 June 1955, after consultation with the Public Record Office.

Public Record(s)

English

2 volume(s)

Topics

Conflict

Ireland

Operations, battles and campaigns