Her Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the United Kingdom. When the post is held by a minister in HM Treasury it ranks third in the Treasury, after the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
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 and the Treasurer of the Ordnance, (1670-1835). 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 Revenue and Customs (formerly the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise). The incumbent Paymaster General is Ben Gummer, who is also the Minister for the Cabinet Office.
The Paymaster General was formerly in charge of the Office of HM Paymaster General (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. However, in 2008, the government announced that the Office of the Paymaster General would be incorporated into a new body, the Government Banking Service, 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, retail banking services for the GBS are provided exclusively by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Citibank, although the Bank of England still plays a role in managing the government's higher level accounts. The post is now therefore usually combined with another role.
Sir Henry Parnell, Bt. 1836–1841
Edward Stanley 1841
Sir Edward Knatchbull, Bt. 1841–1845
Bingham Baring 1845–1846
Thomas Babington Macaulay 1846–1848
Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville 1848–1852
Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley 1852
Charles Abbot, 2nd Baron Colchester 1852
Edward Stanley, 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley 1853–1855
Edward Pleydell-Bouverie 1855
Robert Lowe 1855–1858
Richard Hely-Hutchinson, 4th Earl of Donoughmore 1858–1859
Algernon Percy, Lord Lovaine 1859
James Wilson 1859
William Cowper 1859–1860
William Hutt 1860–1865
George Goschen 1865–1866
William Monsell 1866
Stephen Cave 1866–1868
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Earl of Dufferin 1868–1872
Hugh Childers 1872–1873
William Adam 1873–1874
Stephen Cave 1874–1880
David Plunket 1880
George Glyn, 2nd Baron Wolverton 1880–1885
Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp 1885–1886
Thomas Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 5th Baron Thurlow 1886
Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp 1886–1887
Adelbert Brownlow-Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow 1887–1889
Victor Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey 1889–1890
Robert Windsor-Clive, 1st Baron Windsor 1890–1892
Charles Seale-Hayne 1892–1895
John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun 1895–1899
Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough 1899–1902
Edwardian and wartime
Savile Crossley 1902–1905
Richard Causton (1st Baron Southwark after 13 July 1910) 1905–1910
Ivor Guest, 1st Baron Ashby St Ledgers 1910–1912
Edward Strachey, 1st Baron Strachie 1912–1915
Thomas Legh, 2nd Baron Newton 1915–1916
Arthur Henderson 1916
Joseph Compton-Rickett 1916–1919
Tudor Walters 1919–1922
Office vacant 1922–1923
Neville Chamberlain 1923
William Joynson-Hicks 1923
Archibald Boyd-Carpenter 1923–1924
Harry Gosling 1924
Office vacant 1924–1925
George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland 1925–1928
Richard Onslow, 5th Earl of Onslow 1928–1929
Sydney Arnold 1929–1931
Office vacant 1931
Tudor Walters 1931
Ernest Lamb, 1st Baron Rochester 1931–1935
Robert Hutchison, 1st Baron Hutchison of Montrose 1935–1938
Geoffrey FitzClarence, 5th Earl of Munster 1938–1939
Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton 1939
Office vacant 1939–1940
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne 1940
Office vacant 1940–1941
Maurice Hankey 1941–1942
William Jowitt 1942
Frederick Lindemann, 1st Baron Cherwell 1942–1945
Office vacant 1945–1946
Arthur Greenwood 1946–1947
Hilary Marquand 1947–1948
Christopher Addison 1948–1949
Gordon Macdonald, 1st Baron Macdonald of Gwaenysgor 1949–1951
Frederick Lindemann, 1st Baron Cherwell 1951–1953
George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk 1953–1955
Office vacant 1955–1956
Walter Monckton 1956–1957
Reginald Maudling 1957–1959
Percy Mills 1959–1961
Henry Brooke 1961–1962
John Boyd-Carpenter 1962–1964
George Wigg 1964–1967
Office vacant 1967–1968
Edward Shackleton 1968
Judith Hart 1968–1969
Harold Lever 1969–1970
David Eccles 1970–1973
Maurice Macmillan 1973–1974
Edmund Dell 1974–1976
Shirley Williams 1976–1979
Angus Maude 1979–1981
Francis Pym 1981
Cecil Parkinson 1981–1983
Office vacant 1983–1984
John Gummer 1984–1985
Kenneth Clarke 1985–1987
Peter Brooke 1987–1989
Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness 1989–1990
Richard Ryder 1990
John Ganzoni, 2nd Baron Belstead 1990–1992
John Cope 1992–1994
David Heathcoat-Amory 1994–1996
David Willetts 1996
Michael Bates 1996–1997
Geoffrey Robinson 1997–1999
