Records of the Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees Department

Division within CO

1941-1953

Records of the Prisoners of War, Civilian Internees and Casualties Department relating to both Second World War prisoners and civilian internees held in British colonial territories and to British subjects held as prisoners of war or civilian internees.

Records of the department are in CO 980 with registers to correspondence in CO 1012. A nominal index of individuals interned or held as prisoners of war in Hong Kong and Malaya, featuring mostly British, Dominion and Colonial citizens, but also some nationals of allied states, is in CO 1070.

Public Record(s)

English

• Colonial Office, Enquiries and Casualties Branch, 1941-1942
• Colonial Office, Prisoners of War, Civilian Internees and Casualties Department, 1942-1945

3 series

Topics

Internment

Asia

Conflict

Nationality

Operations, battles and campaigns

In January 1942 an Enquiries and Casualties Branch was set up to deal with matters relating to enemy aliens who were prisoners of war, to civilian internees in British colonial territories and to British subjects held as prisoners of war or internees in enemy and enemy-occupied territories. It was later renamed the Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees Department, and from October 1942 it included a statistical section. It ceased to exist at the end of the war.