Editing Paymaster General (section)

==History==
[[File:36 Whitehall (geograph 5346102).jpg|thumb|260px|left|Until 1939 the Office of the Paymaster General was at 36 [[Whitehall]] (an extension of [[Horse Guards (building)|Horse Guards]] formerly occupied by the Paymaster to the Forces).<ref name=Roper1998>{{cite book |last=Roper |first=Michael |title=The Records of the War Office and Related Departments, 1660-1964 |publisher=Public Record Office |location=Kew, UK |date=1998}}</ref>]]
The post was created in 1836 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 [[Chelsea Pensioner|Army pensions]]) (1681–1835) and the [[Treasurer of the Ordnance]] (1670–1835).

Initially, the Paymaster General only had responsibilities in relation to the [[armed services]] but in 1848 two more offices were merged into that of Paymaster General: the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills (1723–1848) and the Paymaster of the Civil Service (1834–1848), the latter followed by its Irish counterpart in 1861. They thus became 'the principal paying agent of the government and the banker for all government departments except the [[HM Revenue and Customs|revenue departments]] and the [[National Debt]] Office'.<ref name="NA">{{OGL-attribution|version=3.0|{{cite web |title=Records of the Paymaster General's Office and predecessors |url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C229 |website=The National Archives |access-date=10 December 2018}}}}</ref>

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.