Secretary of State for the Colonies

The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet official in charge of managing the various British colonies. The position was first created in 1768 to deal with the increasingly troublesome North American colonies. Previously those responsibilities had fallen to the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, who was responsible for Southern England, Wales, Ireland, the American colonies, and relations with the Catholic and Muslim states of Europe.

The men who held office were:

• Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough 1768 - 1772
• William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth 1772 - 1775
• Lord George Sackville-Germain 1775 - 1782
• Welbore Ellis 1782

In 1782, following the loss of the American colonies, the office was abolished, and its duties given to the Home Secretary. In 1794 a new office was created for Henry Dundas - the Secretary of State for War, which now took responsibility for the Colonies, and was renamed the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1801.

In 1854, military reforms led to the War Office and Colonial Office being split up, and the office of Secretary of State for the Colonies was recreated. Its holders were as follows:

• Sir George Grey 1854 - 1855
• Sidney Herbert 1855
• Lord John Russell 1855
• Sir William Molesworth 1855
• Henry Labouchere 1855 - 1858
• Edward Henry Stanley, Lord Stanley 1858
• Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1858 - 1859
• Henry Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme 1859 - 1864
• Edward Cardwell 1864 - 1866
• Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon 1866 - 1867
• Richard Temple-Grenville, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos 1867 - 1868
• Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1868 - 1870
• John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley 1870 - 1874
• Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon 1874 - 1878
• Sir Michael Hicks Beach 1878 - 1880
• John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley 1880 - 1882
• Edward Henry Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby 1882 - 1885
• Frederick Arthur Stanley 1885 - 1886
• Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1886
• Edward Stanhope 1886 - 1887
• Sir Henry Thurston Holland, 1st Lord Knutsford (1888) 1887 - 1892
• George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon 1892 - 1895
• Joseph Chamberlain 1895 - 1903
• Alfred Lyttelton 1903 - 1905
• Victor Alexander Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin 1905 - 1908
• Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Earl of Crewe 1908 - 1910
• Lewis Harcourt 1910 - 1915
• Andrew Bonar Law 1915 - 1916
• Walter Hume Long 1916 - 1919
• Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner 1919 - 1921
• Winston Churchill 1921 - 1922
• Victor Christian William Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire 1922 - 1924
• James Henry Thomas 1924
• Leopold Charles Amery 1924 - 1929
• Sydney James Webb, 1st Lord Passfield 1929 - 1931
• James Henry Thomas 1931
• Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister 1931 - 1935
• Malcolm MacDonald 1935
• James Henry Thomas 1935 - 1936
• William Ormsby Gore 1936 - 1938
• Malcolm MacDonald 1938 - 1940
• George Ambrose Lloyd, Lord Lloyd 1940 - 1941
• Walter Guiness, Lord Moyne 1941 - 1942
• Robert Arthur James Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne 1942 - 1945
• Oliver Frederick Stanley 1945 - 1946
• Arthur Creech Jones 1946 - 1950
• James Griffiths 1950 - 1951
• Oliver Lyttelton 1951 - 1954
• Alan Lennox-Boyd 1954 - 1959
• Iain Macleod 1959 - 1961
• Reginald Maudling 1961 - 1962
• Duncan Sandys 1962 - 1964
• Anthony Greenwood 1964 - 1965
• Francis Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford 1965 - 1966
• Frederick Lee 1966

Until 1925, when the office of Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs was created, the Colonial Office had responsibility for all British colonies and dominions besides India, which had its own Secretary of State. In 1966, with most of the colonies gone, the office was merged with that of the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations to create the new office of Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs.

In 1968 the Commonwealth Office was subsumed into the Foreign Office, which became known as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.