Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| United Kingdom His Majesty's Paymaster General | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| HM Treasury | |
| Style | Paymaster General (informal) The Right Honourable (formal; within the UK and Commonwealth) |
| Appointer |
|
| Inaugural holder | Henry Parnell |
| Formation | 27 April 1836 |
| Website | Official website |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of the United Kingdom |
|---|
|
His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in HM Treasury of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by James Murray of the Labour Co-op Party.
| Paymaster General Act 1835[a] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Long title | An Act for consolidating the Offices of Paymaster General, Paymaster and Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital, Treasurer of the Navy, and Treasurer of the Ordnance. | ||||||||
| Citation | 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 35 | ||||||||
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom | ||||||||
| Dates | |||||||||
| Royal assent | 25 August 1835 | ||||||||
| Commencement | 25 August 1835[b] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Status: Partially repealed | |||||||||
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |||||||||
| Revised text of statute as amended | |||||||||
| Text of the Paymaster General Act 1835 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |||||||||
The post was created by the Paymaster General Act 1835[a] (5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 35) by the merger of the positions of the offices of the Paymaster of the Forces (1661–1836), the Treasurer of the Navy (1546–1835), the Paymaster and Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital (responsible for Army pensions) (1681–1835) and the Treasurer of the Ordnance (1670–1835).
| Paymaster General Act 1848[a] | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |||||||||
 | |||||||||
| Long title | An Act for consolidating the Offices of Paymasters of Exchequer Bills and Paymaster of Civil Services with the Office of Paymaster General, and for making other Provisions in regard to the consolidated Offices. | ||||||||
| Citation | 11 & 12 Vict. c. 55 | ||||||||
| Territorial extent | United Kingdom | ||||||||
| Dates | |||||||||
| Royal assent | 14 August 1848 | ||||||||
| Commencement | 14 August 1848[a] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Status: Partially repealed | |||||||||
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |||||||||
| Revised text of statute as amended | |||||||||
| Text of the Paymaster General Act 1848 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from legislation.gov.uk. | |||||||||
Initially, the Paymaster General only had responsibilities in relation to the armed services but two more offices were merged into that of Paymaster General by the Paymaster General Act 1848[a] (11 & 12 Vict. c. 55): the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills (1723–1848) and the Paymaster of the Civil Service (1834–1848), the latter followed by its Irish counterpart by the Public Works (Ireland) Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 71). They thus became 'the principal paying agent of the government and the banker for all government departments except the revenue departments and the National Debt Office'.[2]
From 1848 to 1868, the post was held concurrently with that of Vice-President of the Board of Trade.
The longest-serving holder of the post was Dawn Primarolo, whose portfolio covered HM Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue (which during her tenure became merged as HM Revenue and Customs) and who served from 1999 to 2007.
Today, the Paymaster General is usually a minister without portfolio available for any duties which the government of the day may designate. The post may be combined with another office, or may be left unfilled.
Though the Paymaster General was titular head of the Paymaster General's Office, their executive functions were delegated to the Assistant Paymaster General, a permanent civil servant who (though acting in the name of the Paymaster General) was answerable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.[2]
The Paymaster General was formerly in nominal charge (and at one time in actual charge) of the Office of HM Paymaster General[3] (OPG), which held accounts at the Bank of England on behalf of government departments and selected other public bodies. Funds which were made available from the Consolidated Fund were then channelled into OPG accounts, from where they were used by the relevant body. OPG operated a full range of accounts and banking transaction services, including cheque and credit, BACS and CHAPS services for its customers via an electronic banking system. Integration of OPG accounts held with commercial banks was provided by the private company Xafinity Paymaster which is now part of the Equiniti group.
However, in 2008, the government announced that the Office of the Paymaster General would be incorporated into a new body, the Government Banking Service,[4] which also provides banking operations for HM Revenue & Customs and National Savings and Investments. Following the Bank of England's decision to withdraw from providing retail banking services,[5] retail banking and payment services for the GBS are provided by a range of financial institutions including Barclays, Citibank, NatWest, and Worldpay,[6] although the Bank of England still plays a role in managing the government's higher level accounts.[7]
| Paymaster General | Term of office | Concurrent office(s) | Political party | Prime Minister | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Frederick Lindemann 1st Viscount Cherwell |
30 October 1951 | 11 November 1953 | Conservative | Winston Churchill (III) | |||
|
George Douglas-Hamilton 10th Earl of Selkirk |
11 November 1953 | 20 October 1955 | |||||
| Office vacant | 20 October 1955 | 18 October 1956 | Anthony Eden (Eden) | |||||
|
Walter Monckton MP for Bristol West |
18 October 1956 | 16 January 1957 | |||||
|
Reginald Maudling MP for Barnet |
16 January 1957 | 14 October 1959 | Harold Macmillan (I) | ||||
|
Percy Mills 1st Viscount Mills |
14 October 1959 | 9 October 1961 | Harold Macmillan (II) | ||||
|
Henry Brooke MP for Hampstead |
9 October 1961 | 13 July 1962 | Chief Secretary to the Treasury | ||||
|
|
John Boyd-Carpenter MP for Kingston-upon-Thames |
13 July 1962 | 19 October 1964 | Chief Secretary to the Treasury | Alec Douglas-Home (Douglas-Home) | |||
|
|
George Wigg MP for Dudley |
19 October 1964 | 12 November 1967 | Labour | Harold Wilson (I & II) | |||
| Office vacant | 12 November 1967 | 6 April 1968 | Harold Wilson (II) | |||||
|
|
Edward Shackleton Baron Shackleton |
6 April 1968 | 1 November 1968 | |||||
|
|
Judith Hart MP for Clydesdale |
1 November 1968 | 6 October 1969 | |||||
|
|
Harold Lever MP for Manchester Cheetham |
6 October 1969 | 23 June 1970 | |||||
|
|
David Eccles 1st Viscount Eccles |
23 June 1970 | 2 December 1973 | Minister for the Arts | Conservative | Edward Heath (Heath) | ||
|
|
Maurice Macmillan MP for Farnham |
2 December 1973 | 4 March 1974 | |||||
|
Edmund Dell MP for Birkenhead |
4 March 1974 | 10 September 1976 | Labour | Harold Wilson (III & IV) | |||
|
Shirley Williams MP for Hitchin |
10 September 1976 | 4 May 1979 | Secretary of State for Education and Science | James Callaghan (Callaghan) | |||
|
|
Angus Maude MP for Stratford-on-Avon |
4 May 1979 | 5 January 1981 | Conservative | Margaret Thatcher (I) | |||
|
Francis Pym MP for Cambridgeshire |
5 January 1981 | 14 September 1981 | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (5 January 1981 – 14 September 1981) Leader of the House of Commons |
||||
|
|
Cecil Parkinson MP for South Hertfordshire |
14 September 1981 | 11 June 1983 | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (6 April 1982 – 11 June 1983) |
||||
| Office vacant | 11 June 1983 | 11 September 1984 | Margaret Thatcher (II) | |||||
|
John Gummer MP for Suffolk Coastal |
11 September 1984 | 1 September 1985 | |||||
|
Kenneth Clarke MP for Rushcliffe |
2 September 1985 | 13 July 1987 | Minister of State for Employment | ||||
|
|
Peter Brooke MP for City of London and Westminster South |
13 July 1987 | 24 July 1989 | Margaret Thatcher (III) | ||||
|
Malcolm Sinclair 20th Earl of Caithness |
25 July 1989 | 14 July 1990 | |||||
|
Richard Ryder MP for Mid Norfolk |
14 July 1990 | 28 November 1990 | John Major (I) | ||||
|
|
John Ganzoni 2nd Baron Belstead |
28 November 1990 | 11 April 1992 | Minister of State for Northern Ireland | ||||
|
John Cope MP for Northavon |
14 April 1992 | 20 July 1994 | John Major (lI) | ||||
|
David Heathcoat-Amory MP for Wells |
20 July 1994 | 20 July 1996 | |||||
|
David Willetts MP for Havant |
20 July 1996 | 21 November 1996 | |||||
|
Michael Bates MP for Langbaurgh |
21 November 1996 | 2 May 1997 | Lord Commissioner of the Treasury (17 October 1995 – 11 December 1996) |
||||
|
Geoffrey Robinson MP for Coventry North West |
2 May 1997 | 23 December 1998 | Labour | Tony Blair (I) | |||
| Shadow Paymaster general | Term of office | Party | Shadow Cabinet | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Richard Ottaway | 1 June 2000 | 1 June 2001 | Conservative | Hague | |
|
Stephen O'Brien | 1 June 2002 | 1 June 2003 | Conservative | Duncan Smith | |
|
Mark Prisk | 1 June 2003 | 1 June 2004 | Conservative | Howard | |
|
Andrew Tyrie | 1 June 2004 | 1 June 2005 | Conservative | ||
|
Mark Francois | 10 May 2005 | 3 July 2007 | Conservative | ||
| Cameron | ||||||
|
Jack Dromey | 14 May 2021 | 4 December 2021 | Labour | Starmer | |
|
Fleur Anderson | 4 December 2021 | 4 September 2023 | Labour | ||
|
Jonathan Ashworth | 4 September 2023 | 5 July 2024 | Labour | ||
|
John Glen | 8 July 2024 | 8 November 2024 | Conservative | Sunak | |
|
Richard Holden | 8 November 2024 | 22 July 2025 | Conservative | Badenoch | |
|
Harriett Baldwin | 31 August 2026 | Incumbent | Conservative | ||
This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence v3.0: "Records of the Paymaster General's Office and predecessors". The National Archives. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in HM Treasury of the United Kingdom. The position is currently held by James Murray of the Labour Co-op Party.
George Rodney Smith (7 May 1850 – 24 May 1928) was the last Paymaster-General of the United States Army. He graduated 31st in the United States Military Academy class of 1875. He served in the garrisons at various army camps until finding employment in the Paymaster-General's office, where Smith remained until 1890, when he served in several departments of the Army. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, Smith was transferred to Cuba, and fought in the war. He then returned to the Paymaster-General department, eventually becoming Paymaster-General, and resigning from the Army on 15 February 1913.
William Smith (March 26, 1831 – January 17, 1912) was a career officer in the United States Army. A Union Army veteran of the American Civil War, he served from 1861 to 1895 and was most notable for his service as Paymaster-General of the United States Army from 1890 to 1895.
The Paymaster-General of the United States Army was a general officer who was responsible for the Pay Department of the U.S. Army.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Shirley Chisholm, elected in 1968.
