Great Britain. Cabinet Office. Committee of Imperial Defence : The Committee of Imperial Defence, an advisory body with no executive functions, was first formed in December 1902 when the Defence Committee of the Cabinet, originally formed in 1895, was reorganized to include not only ministers but also professional heads of the Army and Navy. From its inception in 1902, copies of its printed minutes and printed memoranda were preserved in four series related to home defence, miscellaneous, colonial defence and Indian defence. In 1904, it was completely reconstituted and the prime minister became its chairman and only permanent member, with complete discretion to summon other ministers, chiefs of staff, and other experts as required. At the same time, the committee was given a permanent secretariat.
Prior to 1914, the Committee of Imperial Defence had four permanent subcommittees: Colonial Defence, Home Ports Defence, Coordination of Departmental Action and Air. The Colonial Defence Committee focused on defence schemes for the dominions and colonies. In 1902, it was taken over, with its records, by the Committee of Imperial Defence and in 1911 it was renamed the Oversea Defence Committee. After 1918, the first three of these subcommittees were revived and were subsequently augmented by a number of standing and ad hoc committees. With the assistance of its subcommittees, the Committee of Imperial Defence formulated for the Cabinet general principles on which defence policy should be based, made recommendations to the Cabinet and relevant departments on specialized defence problems, and prepared, in consultation with departments, detailed plans for the effective co-ordination of naval, military and civil authorities in the event of war.
Before 1914, representatives of Dominion governments had, from time to time, participated in the Committee of Imperial Defence. When war came in 1914, the activities of the Committee diminished rapidly and by 1915 they were virtually suspended. However, its secretariat was kept together to serve the War Council, Dardanelles Committee and War Committee and became in December 1916 the nucleus of the secretariat of the War Cabinet. After the war the Committee of Imperial Defence met twice in 1920, but not again until July 1922. In the interval, matters with which it would ordinarily have dealt were discussed by a Standing Defence Subcommittee. Subsequently, it met regularly until September 1939. When the War Cabinet was formed in September 1939 it absorbed the Committee of Imperial Defence which was not revived after the war and many of its former concerns passed to the new Minister of Defence.
