sentences:  In 1968 that Office was merged with the Foreign Office, renamed as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which maintained ultimate oversight of the dwindling residual HMOCS personnel until 1997.The historical record of the Colonial Service begins with the publication on 30 March 1837, in the reign of King William IV, of the first set of what became known as Colonial Regulations, relating to "His Majesty's Colonial Service".It can therefore be said to have been the oldest of all the overseas services, predating the formation of the Indian Civil Service in 1858 and the Sudan Political Service in 1899, and in the course of its existence controlled 42 territories.