| Administrative History | When the incoming papers from the missions arrived at the CMS UK office, London, they were numbered in the chronological order in which they arrived. A new running number was started for each year from 1 January onwards. From 1884, those originating in Great Britain are also marked with the initials of the mission - 'N.W. A.' ('N. W. C.' from 1896).
The date of receipt was also noted and often the initials of Secretaries and other staff of the CMS UK office who were dealing with the material.
Some items were removed from the sequences of incoming correspondence and filed elsewhere either as soon as they had been entered on the précis [see precis books CMS/B/OMS/G1 C1 P] or in the normal course of administrative work. Usually in these cases, a filing note can be found inserted in the files of Original papers in place of the extracted item; giving the number of the item, the initials of the staff member and the department. |