In an extensive survey of the published sources available for research into the biographical data of members of the British Colonial Service and its successor (1954), HM Overseas Civil Service (‘Colonial Service biographical data: the published sources’, ARD 46, 1988, 1-16), I identified five principal serial publications beyond such general but limited reference works as Who was who. Dictionary of national biography, The Times and Daily Telegraph obituaries, and my Biographical dictionary of the British colonial governor: 1, Africa (1980). These were:

1. i. The Colonial Office Lists, 1862-1966

2. ii. The Colonial Service Lists, 1933-1939

3. iii. Territorial Staff Lists

4. iv. Territorial Civil Service Lists

5. v. Colonial Blue Books