The War Office developed from the
Council of War, an
ad hoc grouping of the King and his senior military commanders which managed the
Kingdom of England's wars and campaigns. The management of the War Office was directed initially by the
Secretary at War, whose role had originated during the reign of
King Charles II as the secretary to the
Commander-in-Chief of the Army. In the latter part of the 17th century, the office of Commander-in-Chief was vacant for several periods, which left the Secretary at War answering directly to the Sovereign; and thereafter, even when the office of Commander-in-Chief was restored on a more permanent basis, the Secretary at War retained his independence. After Blathwayt's retirement in 1704, Secretary at War became a political office. In political terms, it was a fairly minor government job (despite retaining a continued right of access to the monarch) which dealt with the minutiae of administration, rather than grand strategy. The Secretary, who was usually a member of the House of Commons, routinely presented the House with the Army Estimates, and occasionally spoke on other military matters as required. In symbolic terms, he was seen as signifying parliamentary control over the Army. Issues of strategic policy during wartime were managed by the
Northern and
Southern Departments (the predecessors of today's
Foreign Office and
Home Office). From 1704 to 1855, the post of Secretary remained occupied by a minister of the second rank (although he was occasionally part of the Cabinet after 1794). Many of his responsibilities were transferred to the
Secretary of State for War after the creation of that more senior post in 1794 (though the latter was also responsible for Britain's colonies from 1801, and renamed
Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, an arrangement which only ceased with the establishment of the
Colonial Office in 1854). From 1824, the
British Empire (excepting
India, which was administered separately by the
East India Company and then the
India Office) was divided by the War and Colonial Office into the following administrative departments:
North America •
Upper Canada,
Lower Canada •
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia,
Prince Edward Island •
Bermuda,
Newfoundland West Indies Mediterranean and Africa •
Malta •
Gibraltar •
Ionian Islands •
Sierra Leone and the West African Forts, Consulates to the
Barbary States Eastern Colonies •
New South Wales •
Van Dieman's Land •
Ceylon •
Mauritius The War Office, after 1854 and until the 1867
confederation of the
Dominion of Canada, was to split the military administration of the British Empire much as the War and Colonial Office had: • Indicates an
Imperial Fortress † Bermuda and Halifax were linked, under the Commander-in-Chief at Halifax, with units and strength at Bermuda included in figures for Halifax In February 1855, the new Secretary of State for War was additionally commissioned as Secretary at War, thus giving the Secretary of State oversight of the War Office in addition to his own department. The same procedure was followed for each of his successors, until the office of Secretary at War was abolished altogether in 1863. In 1855, the
Board of Ordnance was abolished as a result of its perceived poor performance during the
Crimean War. This powerful independent body, dating from the 15th century, had been directed by the
Master-General of the Ordnance, usually a very senior military officer who (unlike the Secretary at War) was often a member of the Cabinet. The disastrous campaigns of the Crimean War resulted in the consolidation of all administrative duties in 1855 as subordinate to the Secretary of State for War, a Cabinet job. He was not, however, solely responsible for the Army; the Commander-in-Chief had a virtually equal degree of responsibility. This was reduced in theory by
the reforms introduced by
Edward Cardwell in 1870, which subordinated the Commander-in-Chief to the Secretary for War. In practice, however, a large influence was retained by the conservative Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal
Prince George, 2nd Duke of Cambridge, who held the post between 1856 and 1895. His resistance to reform caused military efficiency to lag well behind that of Britain's rivals, a problem that became obvious during the
Second Boer War. The situation was only remedied in 1904, when the job of Commander-in-Chief was abolished, and replaced with that of the
Chief of the General Staff, which was replaced by the job of
Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1908. An
Army Council was created with a format similar to that of the
Board of Admiralty, directed by the Secretary of State for War, and an
Imperial General Staff was established to coordinate Army administration. The creation of the Army Council was recommended by the War Office (Reconstitution) Committee, and formally appointed by
Letters Patent dated 8 February 1904, and by
Royal Warrant dated 12 February 1904. The management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of
H.H. Asquith attempted to resolve this during the
First World War by appointing
Lord Kitchener as Secretary for War. During his tenure, the
Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the
Committee of Imperial Defence, which debated broader military issues. The War Office decreased greatly in importance after the First World War, a fact illustrated by the drastic reductions of its staff numbers during the inter-war period. Its responsibilities and funding were also reduced. In 1936, the government of
Stanley Baldwin appointed a Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, who was not part of the War Office. When
Winston Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940, he bypassed the War Office altogether, and appointed himself Minister of Defence (though there was, curiously, no
ministry of defence until 1947).
Clement Attlee continued this arrangement when he came to power in 1945, but appointed a separate Minister of Defence for the first time in 1947. In 1964, the present form of the
Ministry of Defence was established, unifying the War Office, Admiralty, and Air Ministry. ==The Old War Office building ==