Search

This thesis examines the reform of the British Civil Service and its impact on society by providing the first systematic exploration of developments in the Treasury department between 1847 and 1914. It covers some of the most significant changes in the modern history of the British state in terms of appointments, promotions, pensions, and the development of a new idea of profession in the Civil Service from youth to old age. It reveals the interconnections between the aristocracy and the professions over the nineteenth century, and the Treasury's key role in the professionalization of government administration. Existing scholarship on the Civil Service has provided the foundations of our understanding of reforms and public departments. However, few scholars have studied these processes from a social history perspective, exploring how reforms impacted the lives of civil servants, or how social structures shaped the new Civil Service profession. By analysing the Civil Service through the lenses of life cycle, family, and class, this study offers a new dimension to our understanding of the professionalization of the British state and society. Reforms evolved in ways that reflected and were influenced by changing attitudes to class, public office, life course, and family. Between 1847-1914, new Civil Service employment and career structures common to clerks from the aristocracy, middle classes, and working classes were developed, yet considerable disparities between the different levels of the Civil Service persisted. The professionalization of the British state played out in private as well as in public spheres, where family formations, intergenerational support, social connections, educational institutions, and voluntary associations meshed with the structures of the Civil Service in various forms in the late nineteenth century. By analysing the reform of the Civil Service from a social and cultural perspective and through thus far untapped sources, this thesis explores an important shift in British administrative, political, and social history.