Records of the War Committee of Tynwald

This series contains minutes of meetings of the War Committee of Tynwald. The name of the committee was changed to the General Advisory Committee on 1 Nov 1945. Two sets of minutes can be found within this series, both by the same author, the Chairman Deemster Cowley.

The first set, comprises duplicated carbon copies of typed minutes covering Nov 1939-Oct 1944. It also includes an additional handwritten volume titled '[House of] Keys and Tynwald Committee minute book' dating from Jun 1938-Dec 1942. This set was previously stored in the Central Government Office basement before transfer to the Isle of Man Public Record Office.

The second set comprises original typed minutes pasted into volumes, some signed by the Chairman. This set includes meetings from Oct 1944-Oct 1946 which are not included in the first set.

The War Committee of Tynwald, or ‘War Cabinet’, was preceded by the War Emergency Committee appointed on 4 August 1939 to advise the Governor on matters relating to the threatened war. The Lieutenant-Governor told Tynwald on 28 November 1939 of his decision to replace the War Emergency Committee with a small committee ‘for the purpose of consultation on the problems of the day’. The Governor’s Executive Council and the Finance and Consultative Committees of the House of Keys were to continue. The new committee was ‘to discharge emergency functions’ and to meet weekly. Any proposals of a financial nature were to be submitted to Executive Council and the Finance Committee of the House of Keys. Proceedings of the new committee were confidential. The first meeting was on 30 November 1939. On 1 November 1945 the name was changed to the General Advisory Committee. The final meeting was on 17 October 1946; an Executive Council, with some of the same members, had been appointed the previous day. The Committee dealt with a very wide range of matters - the price of goods, proposed legislation, winter employment, defence regulations, the development of local industries, air raid precautions and requisitioned properties, to give but a few examples.

S18/1: War Committee of Tynwald: minutes 1939-1944

S18/2: War Committee of Tynwald and General Advisory Committee: minutes 1939-1946

Open

For information on visiting the Isle of Man Public Record Office please see our website: www.gov.im/pro.

Please see our website for catalogues: www.gov.im/pro.

Catalogue created by Angela Skitt, IOMPRO, 22 June 2015.

Records formerly in consignment C266 (those catalogued as sub-series S18/2) were fully transferred to the Isle of Man Public Record Office under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1999 on 22 April 2015 as part of A28. Prior to storage at the Public Record Office, the records had been stored at Tynwald Library and the Central Government Office.

Records formerly part of C14/A (those catalogued as sub-series S18/1) were fully transferred to the Isle of Man Public Record Office by the Cabinet Office under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1999 on 22 April 2015 as part of A28.

More detailed minutes of the same committee, created by the Government Secretary Bertram Sergeaunt who was not on the committee but attended, can be found in S17/1 (formerly C14-1, 29749/70 folders 1-11: folders 1-7). Deemster Cowley also sent copies of his own minutes to Sargeaunt from the meeting of 15 May 1941 onwards (these can be found in S17/1 29749 70/2 f1-5).