Skip to main content
Sign in
Back to search results Start a new search

You are viewing the catalogue description of the following item:

War Cabinet, Ministry of Defence, and Cabinet Office: Central Intelligence Machinery:...

Description and record details

Reference CAB 163
Title War Cabinet, Ministry of Defence, and Cabinet Office: Central Intelligence Machinery: Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee, later Committee: Secretariat: Files
Date 1939-1996
Description

This series contains a few files of the Joint Intelligence Committee Secretariat relating to the organisation of the intelligence staffs during and after the Second World War, intelligence support to particular operations and the disposal of sensitive documentation found among those papers of Sir Winston Churchill that subsequently accrued to PREM 3.

Arrangement

The earliest files in this series are from a discrete plain numbered series used in the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee secretariat; in 1957 the (by then) JIC secretariat was allocated the number 82 within the Cabinet Office main Registry; in the late 1960s 82 was superseded by a J prefix numbered series.

Within each accession, the records are arranged by file series and then in chronological order by end date.

Related material

For JIC Secretary's Minutes (JIC(SEC)) see CAB 176

For minutes and papers of the Sub-Committee and Committee after 1946 see CAB 158

For minutes and papers, 1939-1946 see CAB 81

For minutes and papers of the Sub-Committee and Committee after 1946 see also CAB 159

Held by Creating government department or its successor
Former reference in its original department 82 and J file series
Legal status Public Record(s)
Language

English

Creator

Cabinet Office, Joint Intelligence Committee Secretariat, 1957

Cabinet Office, Joint Intelligence Secretariat, 1945-1947

Ministry of Defence, Joint Intelligence Committee Secretariat, 1947-1957

War Cabinet, Joint Intelligence Committee Secretariat, 1939-1945

Physical description 608 file(s)
Access conditions Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition

From 2000 Cabinet Office

Accumulation dates 1939
Accruals Series is accruing.
Selection and destruction information The Secretariat files were reviewed in 1976 and most were destroyed - this series contains the files which were selected at that review.
Administrative/ biographical background

In January 1936 the Committee of Imperial Defence approved the formation of the Inter-Services Intelligence Committee; in July its name was changed to the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee (JISC). The Committee of Imperial Defence lapsed at the outbreak of war in 1939; the Chiefs of Staff Committee structure, including the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee, being incorporated within the War Cabinet organisation.

In 1947 responsibility for the Joint Intelligence Sub-Committee passed to the Ministry of Defence. It was within the Chiefs of Staff Committee structure, and in January 1948 its name was modified to Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC).

In October 1957 reflecting the broadened scope and role of intelligence the committee was brought back within the Cabinet Committee structure.