Commander In Chief

Commander-in-Chief. The army was originally under the personal command of the sovereign, but in 1793 this command was delegated to a Commander-in-Chief appointed by patent. The command was divided in the middle of the nineteenth century between the Commander-in-Chief and a Secretary of State for War. The latter gradually became predominant, which held to the abolition of the former office in 1904, the Commander-in-Chief's duties being divided between the Army Council and the Inspector-General, the Secretary of State for War being responsible for the Army as a whole.