Colonial Service

Recruitment included candidates from the four self-governing Dominions: Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and a few of the colonies themselves, such as Southern Rhodesia, Malta, Cyprus, and some in the Caribbean.

That continued until 1 July 1997, when the largest remaining colony, Hong Kong, was handed over to the People’s Republic of China, designated as a Special Administrative Region.

The formal end of HMOCS in 1997 was marked by a special commemorative service held in Westminster Abbey on 25 May 1999, attended by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

The physical memorial "To all who served the Crown in the Colonial Territories" is displayed in the South Cloister of Westminster Abbey, unveiled by H.M.

It was an elite of generalists, people mostly with University or other higher education qualifications, and appointments were made after selection interviews intended to assess candidates’ personality, character and motivation.

Administrative Officers were responsible for effecting government policy in the districts and provinces of each territory, as well as serving in the central Secretariat in the capital.

Exceptions were Gibraltar, Malta and Bermuda, formerly classified as "fortress" colonies, where until the post-war years the governors were normally military or naval officers, and thereafter were usually political appointees.

The normal retirement age was 55, set originally to allow for the adverse effect the tropical climate had on their health.

Thereafter the size of the Service shrank rapidly as most territories attained independence, until its formal end with the hand-over of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997.

The approach of independence in each territory had fundamental effects on HMOCS personnel there, depending on the outlook of the emerging local rulers and the stage of general social and economic development.

The normal budgetary system in most territories was that every few years there would be a salaries review, which would include pensions, when increases would be made.

There was consequently concern about whether the new independent governments would be willing to continue to pay the pension entitlements of their former "colonial masters", and at what exchange rates when there was no certainty about the long-term soundness of their financial and economic policies.

In response to these concerns, the four existing pensioner associations of retired officers who had served in Ceylon, Malaya, West Africa and East and Central Africa joined together in 1960 to form a new body which could represent all existing and future pensioners of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service (HMOCS).

The guest of honour was The Prince of Wales, who gave a speech expressing the thanks of The Queen and of himself for "the extraordinarily valuable contribution, let alone the personal sacrifices, made by members of the Overseas Civil Service (and its previous manifestations) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries".