War Office

Coordinates: 51°30′20″N 0°07′33″W / 51.50556°N 0.12583°W / 51.50556; -0.12583 (Old War Office building of the United Kingdom, 1857–1964)
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the former British War Office. For use of this term in the United States, see United States Department of War.

War Office
Royal Coat of Arms as used by
His Majesty's Government
Department overview
Formed1857; 167 years ago (1857)
Preceding Department
  • various
Dissolved1964; 60 years ago (1964)
Superseding agency
JurisdictionGovernment of the United Kingdom
HeadquartersWar Office building
Whitehall
London
51°30′20″N 0°07′33″W / 51.50556°N 0.12583°W / 51.50556; -0.12583 (Old War Office building of the United Kingdom, 1857–1964)
Department executive
Parent DepartmentHM Government

The War Office has referred to several British government organisations in history, all relating to the army. It was a

£
350 million, on a 250 year lease for conversion into a luxury hotel and residential apartments.

Prior to 1855, 'War Office' signified the office of the

Paymaster General of the forces, and (particularly with regard to the Militia) the Home Office.[1]

The term War Department was initially used for the separate office of the Secretary of State for War; in 1855, the offices of Secretary at War and Secretary of State for War were amalgamated, and thereafter the terms War Office and War Department were used somewhat interchangeably.[2]

History

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.[2]

The department of the Secretary at War was referred to as the 'Warr Office' (sic) from as early as 1694;[2] its foundation has traditionally been ascribed to William Blathwayt, who had accompanied King William III during the Nine Years' War and who, from his appointment as Secretary in 1684, had greatly expanded the remit of his office to cover general day-to-day administration of the Army.[3]

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

Foreign Office and Home Office).[4]

From 1704 to 1855, the job 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).[5]

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:[6]

NORTH AMERICA

WEST INDIES

MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA

EASTERN COLONIES

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:[7][8]

BRITISH COLONIAL AND FOREIGN MILITARY DISTRICTS AND STATIONS
DISTRICT STATION
NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH ATLANTIC
Canada West
Quebec, Canada East
WEST INDIES
Bahamas
Barbados
British Honduras
Jamaica - Up Park Camp
Jamaica - Newcastle
Trinidad
MEDITERRANEAN
Zante
Malta **
Scutari, Turkey
WEST COAST OF AFRICA AND SOUTH ATLANTIC
St. Helena
SOUTH AFRICA
Graham's Town
Natal
EGYPT AND THE SUDAN (SOUDAN)
Assouan
Egypt - Korosko
Wady Halfa, Sudan
INDIAN OCEAN Ceylon - Colombo
Ceylon - Kandy
Ceylon - Nuwara Eliya
Ceylon - Trincomalee
Mauritius
Singapore
AUSTRALASIA Auckland, New Zealand
Fremantle, Western Australia
New South Wales
CHINA Hong Kong
** 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.[9]

In 1855, the

Royal Warrant dated 12 February 1904.[11]

The management of the War Office was hampered by persistent disputes between the civilian and military parts of the organisation. The government of

Imperial General Staff was virtually dismantled. Its role was replaced effectively by the Committee of Imperial Defence, which debated broader military issues.[13]

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).[14] 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.[15]

The Old War Office building

View of the former War Office building from Whitehall.
The former War Office building facing Horse Guards Avenue.

As early as 1718 letters from the Secretary at War were addressed from "The War Office". His department had several headquarters in London until it settled at Horse Guards in Whitehall during 1722. It remained there until 1858. Then, following the dissolution of the Board of Ordnance, the War Office moved into the Board's former offices in Cumberland House, Pall Mall. Over the ensuing years it expanded into adjacent properties on Pall Mall before it was relocated to purpose-built accommodation, in what is now known as the Old War Office Building, in 1906.[16]

Between 1906 and its abolition in 1964 the War Office was based in a large neo-Baroque building designed by William Young, completed during 1906, and located on Horse Guards Avenue at its junction with Whitehall in Central London. The construction of the building required five years to complete, at a cost of more than 1.2 million pounds.[17] The building is somewhat oddly shaped, forming a trapezoid in order to maximise the use of the irregularly shaped plot of land on which it was built: its four distinctive domes were designed as a decorative means of disguising the shape.[17] It has around 1,100 rooms on seven floors.[18]

After 1964 the building continued to be used, under the name The Old War Office, by the Ministry of Defence.[17]

On 1 June 2007 the building, other than the steps that give access to it, was designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The effect was to make it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass on the building.[19]

In August 2013 it was announced that the building would be sold on the open market, with a goal of realising offers above 100 million pounds.[20] On 13 December 2014 the Ministry of Defence confirmed that the building would be sold to the Hinduja Group for an undisclosed amount.[21] The building was sold on 1 March 2016 for more than 350 million pounds, on a 250-year lease, to the Hinduja Group and OHL Developments for conversion to a luxury hotel and residential apartments.[18] Hinduja and Raffles plan to open the hotel in the building, the Raffles London at the OWO, on 29 September 2023.[22][23]

War Office departments

The War Office departments were as follows:[24]

  • Office of the Secretary of State
  • Department of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for War
    • Directorate-General of Lands (?–1923)
    • Directorate of Lands (1923– )
    • Directorate-General of the Territorial and Volunteer Forces (?–1921)
    • Directorate-General of the Territorial Army (1921– )
  • Central Department (Department of the Secretary)
    • Department of the Chaplain-General
    • Department of the Judge Advocate-General
    • Publicity Section/Information Section
  • Department of the Financial and Parliamentary Secretary (Finance Department)
    • Directorate of Army Contracts (1924– )
  • Imperial General Staff
    • Directorate of Military Intelligence (?–1922)
    • Directorate of Military Operations (?–1922)
    • Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence (1922– )
    • Directorate of Military Training (1922– )
    • Directorate of Army Staff Duties
  • Department of the Adjutant-General
    • Directorate-General of Graves Registration and Enquiries (?–1921)
    • Directorate-General of Army Medical Services
    • Directorate of Mobilisation
    • Directorate of Organisation
    • Directorate of Army Personal Service
    • Directorate of Prisoners of War (?–1921)
    • Directorate of Recruiting and Organisation
  • Department of the Quartermaster-General
    • Directorate of Equipment and Ordnance Stores (?–1927)
    • Directorate of Movements
    • Directorate of Quartering
    • Directorate of Remounts
    • Directorate of Supplies and Transport
    • Controller of Surplus Stores and Salvage
    • Surveyor-General of Supply (?–1921)
    • Directorate-General of Army Veterinary Services
    • Directorate of Works (1927– )
  • Department of the Master-General of the Ordnance
    • Directorate of Artillery
    • Directorate of Factories
    • Directorate of Fortifications and Works (?–1927)
    • Directorate of Ordnance Services (1927– )
    • Chief Technical Examiner for Works Services
  • Directorate of Military Aeronautics (1913–1918)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Records created or inherited by the War Office, Armed Forces, Judge Advocate General, and related bodies". Discovery.NationalArchives.gov.uk. The National Archives, 1568–2007. Retrieved 2 June 2017. This article contains text from this source, which is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright
  2. ^ a b c Roper, Michael (1998). The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964. Kew, Surrey: Public Record Office.
  3. ^ Courtney, William Prideaux (1886). "Blathwayt, William" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 206.
  4. ^ Sainty, J. C. "Lists of appointments – British History Online". www.British-History.ac.uk. Originally published by University of London, London, 1973. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Records of the Colonial Office, Commonwealth and Foreign and Commonwealth Offices, Empire Marketing Board, and related bodies". National Archives. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  6. ^ Young, Douglas MacMurray (1961). The Colonial Office in The Early Nineteenth Century. London: Published for the Royal Commonwealth Society by Longmans. p. 55.
  7. ^ METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT THE FOREIGN AND COLONIAL STATIONS OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS AND THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT 1852—1886. London: Published by the authority of the Meteorological Council. PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, London E.C. 1890.
  8. ^ "Stations of the British Army". The London Gazette. London. 3 February 1855.
  9. ^ "Senior Cabinet Posts". www.NationalArchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  10. ^ "Timeline". Sappers-MinersWA.com. Sappers and Miners of Western Australia. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  11. ^ Clark, p. 442
  12. ^ Faught, p. 189
  13. ^ Johnson, Franklyn Arthur (1960). Defence by Committee: The British Committee of Imperial Defence, 1885-1959. London, New York: Oxford University Press.
  14. ^ "Winston Churchill 1940". www.NationalArchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  15. ^ "History of the Ministry of Defence" (PDF). Assets.Publishing.Service.gov.uk. Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  16. ISBN 978-1473845770
    .
  17. ^ a b c "History of the Old War Office Building" (PDF). Assets.Publishing.Service.gov.uk. Ministry of Defence. p. 8. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
  18. ^ a b "Ministry of Defence completes sale of old War Office". www.GOV.uk. Ministry of Defence. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  19. ^ "Home Office Circular 018 / 2007 (Trespass on protected sites – sections 128–131 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005)". www.GOV.uk. Home Office. 22 May 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  20. Sunday Telegraph
    .
  21. ^ "Churchill's Old War Office building sold off". www.BBC.co.uk. BBC News. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  22. ^ Landler, Mark (27 March 2022). "Amid War, a Lavish Hotel Will Open in Britain's Old War Office". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  23. ^ Rappaport, Sarah (5 September 2023). "London's Buzziest New Hotel Is an Old War Office". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  24. ^ "Records of the Chief of the (Imperial) General Staff and its directorates". Discovery.NationalArchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 18 July 2018.

Sources

External links

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