General Records of the Dominions Office

Division within DO

1856-1971

General records of the Dominions Office concerning relations with the dominions. Also contains some records of successor bodies, the Commonwealth Relations Office and Commonwealth Office.

Correspondence of the Dominions Office relating to subjects and to relations with the dominions is mostly in a single series DO 35, with registers in DO 3 and subject index cards in DO 230. Supplementary correspondence is in DO 117 and registers of out letters in DO 4. Records relating to agreements and treaties with or concerning the dominions is in DO 118. Correspondence relating to honours prior to 1929 is in DO 36; to the Imperial Service Order in DO 81

Very few records relating to Dominions Office establishment and common services operations are known to have survived.

Public Record(s)

English

9 series

Topics

International

Treaties and alliances

The Dominions Office was created in 1925 by the separation of the Dominions Division from the Colonial Office, and the transfer of the divisional staff to the new department (though in fact the two Offices continued to occupy the same building, and they originally shared the same individual as Secretary of State for both offices).

The Dominions Office continued, however, to utilise Colonial Office staff for the following functions: establishment and personnel matters (provided by the Colonial Office General Department for both home and overseas posts), accounts, legal advice, registry and archiving services, printing and binding, library services and typists and shorthand typists. For this reason the published list of the establishment was a joint Colonial and Dominion Office list from 1925 until publication ceased because of the Second World War in 1940.

It was not until 1947, when the Colonial Office moved from the shared premises in Downing Street to new offices in Great Smith Street, that it was decided that the common departments should be split, as the staff of the two offices below under-secretary level would no longer be interchangeable. The formal date of separation was 1 April 1947 though the physical move of Colonial Office staff did not exactly coincide with this.

From this date, the Dominions Office had its own establishment and common services staff, who then became the common services staff of the Commonwealth Relations Office when it was created on 3 July 1947. For this short period, the only services which remained shared between the two Offices were those vested in a single individual, such as the work of the ceremonial and reception secretary, most of whose duties related to the work of the Dominions Office, but who continued to perform occasional duties for the Colonial Office.