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War Office

1684 establishments in England1906 establishments in England1964 disestablishments in the United KingdomBritish defence policymakingCommons category link is locally defined
Defunct departments of the Government of the United KingdomEdwardian architecture in LondonGovernment agencies disestablished in 1964Government agencies established in 1684Government buildings completed in 1906Grade II* listed buildings in the City of WestminsterHistory of the British ArmyMilitary history of the United KingdomNational government buildings in LondonNeoclassical architecture in LondonPolitical history of the United KingdomUse British English from December 2014War OfficeWhitehall
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government)
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government)

The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). It was equivalent to the Admiralty, responsible for the Royal Navy (RN), and (much later) the Air Ministry, which oversaw the Royal Air Force (RAF). The name 'War Office' is also given to the former home of the department, located at the junction of Horse Guards Avenue and Whitehall in central London. The landmark building was sold on 1 March 2016 by HM Government for more than £350 million, on a 250 year lease for conversion into a luxury hotel and residential apartments. Prior to 1855, 'War Office' signified the office of the Secretary at War. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a number of independent offices and individuals were responsible for various aspects of Army administration. The most important were the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, the Secretary at War, and the twin Secretaries of State; most of whose military responsibilities were passed to a new Secretary of State for War in 1794. Others who performed specialist functions were the controller of army accounts, the Army Medical Board, the Commissariat Department, the Board of General Officers, the Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces, the Commissary General of Muster, the Paymaster General of the forces, and (particularly with regard to the Militia) the Home Office.The term War Department was initially used for the separate office of the Secretary of State for War; in 1855, the offices of Secretary at War and Secretary of State for War were amalgamated, and thereafter the terms War Office and War Department were used somewhat interchangeably.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article War Office (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

War Office
Whitehall Court, City of Westminster Covent Garden

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N 51.505555555556 ° E -0.12583333333333 °
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Whitehall Court
SW1A 2EF City of Westminster, Covent Garden
England, United Kingdom
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Civil Service Club
Civil Service Club

The Civil Service Club is a London social club, founded in 1953, for current and former members of the UK Civil Service and Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service. In advance of the wedding of the Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN, Duke of Edinburgh, which took place on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey, the Home Civil Service and Foreign Service undertook a collection for the purpose of purchasing a suitable present to celebrate the royal nuptials. Two silver salvers were purchased, after which the balance of the Wedding Fund collected by the Home Civil Service and the Foreign Service was £14,037.The Princess Elizabeth was touched by the kindness of the gesture and made her wish known that the balance should be handed over with the express intention that it be utilised to establish a social facility for civil servants: ‘on condition that membership should be available to all grades and classes at a subscription within reach of all.’ A suitable premises was found at 13-15 Great Scotland Yard and the Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard was brought into being as a social centre for all civil servants, both serving and retired, and opened its doors on the morning of 2 February 1953 where it continues to operate to this day. Her Majesty The Queen is the patron of The Civil Service Club Originally the building was a horse-drawn Fire station. It has large windows at the front of the property which were originally the doors. In keeping with tradition, the building next door, on the way to Whitehall, is the Metropolitan Police horse stables. The club provides a bar with pub-style food, a dining room with silver service, several meeting rooms and accommodation for members. It a membership club for serving and former civil servants. There is a nickname "sanctuary", which refers to it being a safe place. A member can sit in peace without fear that any Member of Parliament can even enter the building.

Execution of Charles I
Execution of Charles I

The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in England during the English Civil War, leading to the capture and trial of Charles I. On Saturday 27 January 1649, the parliamentarian High Court of Justice had declared Charles guilty of attempting to "uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people" and he was sentenced to death.Charles spent his last few days in St James's Palace, accompanied by his most loyal subjects and visited by his family. On 30 January, he was taken to a large black scaffold constructed in front of the Banqueting House, where he was to be executed. A large crowd had gathered to witness the regicide. Charles stepped onto the scaffold and gave his last speech, declaring his innocence of the crimes of which parliament had accused him, and claiming himself as a "martyr of the people". The crowd could not hear the speech, owing to the many parliamentarian guards blocking the scaffold, but Charles' companion, Bishop William Juxon, recorded it in shorthand. Charles gave a few last words to Juxon, claiming his "incorruptible crown" in Heaven, and put his head on the block. He waited a few moments and gave a signal; the anonymous executioner beheaded Charles in one clean blow and held Charles' head up to the crowd silently, dropping it into the swarm of soldiers soon after. The execution has been described as one of the most significant and controversial events in English history. Some view it as the martyrdom of an innocent man, with Restoration historian Edward Hyde describing "a year of reproach and infamy above all years which had passed before it; a year of the highest dissimulation and hypocrisy, of the deepest villainy and most bloody treasons that any nation was ever cursed with" and the Tory Isaac D'Israeli writing of Charles as "having received the axe with the same collectedness of thought and died with the majesty with which he had lived", dying a "civil and political" martyr to Britain. Still others view it as a vital step towards democracy in Britain, with the prosecutor of Charles I, John Cook, declaring that it "pronounced sentence not only against one tyrant but against tyranny itself" and Whig historian Samuel Rawson Gardiner, who wrote that "with Charles' death the main obstacle to the establishment of a constitutional system had been removed. [...] The monarchy, as Charles understood it, had disappeared forever".