New cataloguing of Private Office Papers

Blog series Untold lives

Author John O'Brien, India Office Records

The Private Office Papers collection in the India Office Records are papers which were not registered in the India Office record keeping system but instead were kept by private secretaries of successive Secretaries of State for India. The collection has been available to researchers for many years, but now a new series of papers has been added to them. These are unregistered private or demi-official papers associated with the work of the Permanent Under Secretaries of the India Office from 1858 onwards. They had been held under the temporary reference L/PO/MISC but have now been given the permanent series reference IOR/L/PO/13.

The Permanent Under Secretary was the most senior civil servant in any UK government department, with responsibility for the day-to-day management of the department. The IOR/L/PO/13 series contains correspondence, notes and memoranda from some of the most influential holders of that post in the India Office, such as Herman Merivale (who held the post from 1860 to 1874), Sir Louis Mallet (who held the post from 1874 to 1883), John Arthur Godley (the longest holder of the post from 1883 to 1909), Sir Richmond Ritchie (who held the post from 1909 to 1912), Sir Thomas Holderness (who held the post from 1912 to 1920); and Sir Frederick William Duke (who held the post from 1920 to 1924). They show the wide range of issues which had to be dealt with including internal India Office procedures and regulations, managing the heads of the various India Office departments, general staff issues such as recruitment, pay and leave, and advising the Secretary of State on matters of Indian administration. One example which illustrates the range of issues they needed to be able to give advice on is a collection of memoranda between 1862 and 1871 by Herman Merivale on the subjects of the Kirwee Prize Money, the Governor General's Commission, Standing Rules of Council for making laws and regulations, the Nabobship of the Carnatic, and the consolidation of Indian Acts of Parliament.

The collection also includes papers on the staff who worked at the India Office, such as the clerks, messengers, porters and doorkeepers, with memorials from staff who felt they were underpaid or had been disadvantaged in office reorganisations. Some of the more prominent employees of the India Office feature in the collection. There are letters from Clement Markham, Head of the Geographical Department, with memoranda on the work of the department and proposals for the organisation and conduct of the statistical work of the India Office. Another notable figure was John Forbes Watson, Director of the India Museum and Reporter on the Products of India. The collection contains correspondence, reports on the work of his department and on the future of the Indian Museum, memoranda on the organisation in India of a Department for the promotion of Agriculture and Commerce, and on the statistical work in progress in India, and even notes and correspondence relating to the theft of papers from his desk at the India Office. There are also papers of Sir John William Kaye, the distinguished Head of the Political and Secret Department, including a memorandum on the administration of the Star of India, and a note complaining about the lack of an adequate reception room for meeting visiting Indian dignitaries.

As well as files on internal India Office procedure, there are papers on subjects relating to wider Indian policy and administration, including files on Indian railways, land revenue, taxation and Indian monetary policy, and on the visit to India in January 1921 by Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught. There are papers from the early 1880s relating to Afghanistan, and a small collection of letters from Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1873 on the subject of Tibet. There are also some papers relating to Indian Independence, including telegrams between the Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Smuts regarding Gandhi's fast in 1943; papers on the subject of the problems that would arise if there were two Governors-General from the 15th August 1947; and a report for the Secretary of State on events in India and Pakistan for the period 15th to 26th August 1947.

Further reading

Unregistered private or demi-official papers associated with the work of the Permanent Under Secretaries of the India Office, IOR/L/PO/13 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.