Introduction

Abstract

This book presents a comparative synoptic history of the administrative branches of Britain’s three principal overseas civil services during the imperial century of c.1860–1960. These were the Indian Civil Service (ICS), 1858–1947; the Sudan Political Service (SPS), 1899–1955; and the Colonial Service, whose literally inceptive and terminal dates remain open to definitional debate within the proven time-span of 1837–1997.¹ The focus is on the administrators, not on the officers of the professional agricultural, engineering, forestry, medical etc. departments of the overseas governments.