Prior to 1832, the navy did not have a specialist department for accounting purposes. There existed only an office for administering naval widows' pensions that was the domain of the
Paymaster for Widows' Pensions. The Accountant-General's Department was established when the Admiralty's civil departments were reorganized and the
Navy Board was abolished in 1832. This new department took over the duties of the
Navy Boards, Accountants Department and
Navy Boards, Payments Department. The Accountant-General of the Navy was initially one of the new Principal Officers of the
Board of Admiralty from 1832 until 1869. In 1866 the accountant and his department became the immediate deputising function to the
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. It was then given a partial remit over control of naval estimating. The accountant's department, however, had no authority to monitor and track expenditure or estimates of other departments. In January 1869 the department was restructured with new reporting lines, which gave the
Parliamentary Secretary, with the
Civil Lord of the Admiralty as his assistant, overall responsibility for Naval Finance. As a result of the re-structuring, the stores accounts functions, for both naval and victualling, overseen by the Storekeeper-General and the Controller of Victualling, were transferred as part of the new responsibilities of the department. The office of the Accountant-General was thus empowered to both review and critique these departments financially. Further enlargement of the department took place in 1876 with traditional responsibilities added. The department continued in this role until 1932 when the office of Accountant-General and his staff were merged into the
Department of the Secretary to the Admiralty. The department consisted of a number of specialist accounting divisions with sub-branches that were administered by the Assistant Accountants-General of the Navy: see each division's responsibilities in the relevant section below. ==Accountant-General's duties==