This guide covers the period from the Restoration of Charles II to the establishment of the Ministry of Defence in 1964. It includes the records of the Board of Ordnance, military intelligence and military aviation.

The modern British Commonwealth, linking fifty countries around the world in voluntary association, cooperation, and consultation, is a unique body in world history. The area of its member countries covers a third of the globe and collectively their peoples represent a quarter of the world's total population. Though essentially different from the British Empire from which it originated, the Commonwealth shares many common historical ties with Britain. Patricia M. Larby and Harry Hannam have assembled an unrivaled body of literature to illustrate the growth of the Empire into the Commonwealth. This extensive bibliography identifies, lists, and annotates the most important publications on the development and growth of the Commonwealth; its present status and functions; and its role in education, literature, sport, and the arts and sciences. It includes its historical origins: its cooperation in economics, politics, and international issues such as the environment; and its many spheres of professional activity including medicine, law, and architecture. Strong emphasis is placed on the role of the English language in the Commonwealth and as a medium for creative literature in many disparate cultures worldwide. The Commonwealth appears at a time when this unique organization is on the threshold of a new era in its history. The proposals emerging from the 1991 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting include statements on democracy and human rights; environmental affairs; and global concerns such as international crime, drug abuse, and AIDS. No previous comprehensive bibliography of the Commonwealth exists, and this volume fills a long-standing gap in the bibliographical coverage. It will be an essential reference source for libraries and scholars involved in Commonwealth studies and will be of particular interest to historians, political scientists, economists, and educators.

This is the first of two archival guides to official sources which are published as an integral part of the British Documents on the End of Empire Project (BDEEP) and also as Public Record Office handbooks. They should enable those wishing to follow the record of the ending of colonial rule and empire to pursue their enquiries beyond the published record provided by the general studies in series A of BDEEP and the country studies in series B. In addition, this volume has a much wider application to studies of empire. A revised and updated version of The Records of the Colonial and Dominions Offices (by R.B. Pugh, published in 1964), it describes the administrative arrangements for handling Britain's relations with its dependent territories, and the records created by those processes, from the late 17th century until 1968 when the Commonwealth Office merged with the Foreign Office to become the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.