The British Colonial Research Committee (or the Colonial Research Council after 1947) was an advisory organisation of the British state which existed between 1942 and 1959. 16 volumes consisting of the archives of this body are kept at The National Archive. [1] It was established under Lord Hailey. [2]
The Committee was established in June 1942 to offer advice on how the Secretary of State for the Colonies should spend funds allocated by the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1940. Its role was to co-ordinate research of various sub-committees and cover any areas which came to light beyond the purview of these sub-committees. [1] It was also inspired by the Institut Francais de l'Afrique Noire to establish regional research institutes located in colonial countries. [2] After February 1948 This work was taken over by the Colonial Research Council. This in turn was dissolved in 1959 and replaced by the Overseas Research Council, who advised the Committee of the Privy Council on Overseas Research.
The Committee established a series of more focused committees:
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 August 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King-in-Council, the Privy Council formerly acted as the court of last resort for the entire British Empire, other than for the United Kingdom itself.
Portuguese Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa were the common terms by which Mozambique was designated during the period in which it was a Portuguese colony. Portuguese Mozambique originally constituted a string of Portuguese possessions along the south-east African coast, and later became a unified colony, which now forms the Republic of Mozambique.
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), are the 14 territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom, but do not form part of the United Kingdom itself. The permanently inhabited territories are internally self-governing, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defence and foreign relations. All of the territories are inhabited by civilians, except three that are chiefly or only inhabited by military or scientific personnel. All fourteen have the British monarch as head of state. These UK government responsibilities are assigned to various departments of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and are subject to change.
The secretary of state for the colonies or colonial secretary was the Cabinet of the United Kingdom's minister in charge of managing the British Empire.
French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey and Niger. The federation existed from 1895 until 1958. Its capital was Saint-Louis in Senegal until 1902, and then Dakar until the federation's collapse in 1960.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, abbreviated as CSIR, was established by the Government of India in September 1942 as an autonomous body that has emerged as the largest research and development organisation in India. CSIR is also among the world's largest publicly funded R&D organisation which is pioneering sustained contribution to S&T human resource development in the country.
The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ad hoc part of the Government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of the Second World War. It was responsible for research, and some co-ordination, on issues of military strategy.
Uchharangrai Navalshankar Dhebar was an Indian Independence activist who served as the Chief Minister of Saurashtra State from 1948 to 1954 and the President of the Indian National Congress from 1955 to 1959.
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, and the successor British Empire, in the Americas from 1607 to 1783. These colonies were formally known as British America and the British West Indies immediately prior to thirteen of the colonies seceding in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and forming the United States of America.
The Colony of Singapore was a Crown colony of the United Kingdom that encompassed what is modern-day Singapore from 1946 to 1958. During this period, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands were also administered from Singapore. It was created after the dissolution of the Straits Settlements shortly after the Japanese occupation of Singapore ended in 1945. The power of the British Government was vested in the governor of Singapore. The colony eventually gained partial internal self-governance in 1955. It lasted until the establishment of the State of Singapore in 1958, with full internal self-governance granted in 1959.
The Colonial Service, also known as His/Her Majesty's Colonial Service and replaced in 1954 by Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS), was the British government service that administered most of Britain's overseas possessions, under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Colonial Office in London. It did not operate in British India, where the same function was delivered by the Indian Civil Service, nor in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, which was administered by the Sudan Political Service, nor in the internally self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia.
William Malcolm Hailey, 1st Baron Hailey, known as Sir Malcolm Hailey between 1921 and 1936, was a British peer and administrator in British India.
The chief secretary of Singapore, known as the colonial secretary of Singapore before 1955, and the colonial secretary of the Straits Settlements before 1946, was a high ranking government official position in the Straits Settlements before 1946 and the Colony of Singapore after 1946, between 1867 and 1959. It was second only to the governor of Singapore, formerly the governor of the Straits Settlements in the colonial government.
The Crown Colony of Sarawak was a British Crown colony on the island of Borneo, established in 1946, shortly after the dissolution of the British Military Administration. It was succeeded as the state of Sarawak through the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
The War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artistic record of Britain throughout the war. This was achieved both by appointing official war artists, on full-time or temporary contracts and by acquiring artworks from other artists. When the committee was dissolved in December 1945 its collection consisted of 5,570 works of art produced by over four hundred artists. This collection was then distributed to museums and institutions in Britain and around the world, with over half of the collection, some 3,000 works, going to the Imperial War Museum.
The Crown Colony of North Borneo was a Crown colony on the island of Borneo established in 1946 shortly after the dissolution of the British Military Administration. The Crown Colony of Labuan joined the new Crown Colony during its formation. It was succeeded as the state of Sabah through the formation of the Federation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963.
The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research was a department of the British Government responsible for the organisation, development, and encouragement of scientific and industrial research. At the outbreak of the First World War "Britain found ... it was dangerously dependent on enemy industries". At the request of the Board of Trade, the Board of Education prepared a White Paper under the chairmanship of Sir William McCormick. The DSIR was set up to fill the roles that the White Paper specified: "to finance worthy research proposals, to award research fellowships and studentships [in universities], and to encourage the development of research associations in private industry and research facilities in university science departments. [It] rapidly assumed a key role in coordinating government aid to university research. It maintained these roles until 1965. The annual budget during its first year, 1915, was £1,000,000.
The Colonial Development and Welfare Acts were a series of acts implemented by the British parliament.
During the Second World War (1939–1945), the Gambia was part of the British Empire as the Gambia Colony and Protectorate. At the outbreak of war between the British Empire and Nazi Germany in September 1939, the Gambia was home to the Gambia Company of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF).
Sir Arthur Hilton Poynton GCMG, known as Sir Hilton Poynton, was a British civil servant who held the position of Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1959 until his retirement in 1966.