H.M. Customs & Excise

Ron was an Officer of H.M. Customs & Excise http://www.hmce.gov.uk/ 1957-1965 - I started briefly in 1957 and then did National Service and end of 1959 went for the training at the Customs House.

Some ideas on researching your ancestors in Customs or Excise

the site with that URL has disappeared as the Dept is now HM Revenue and Customs http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/
and also disappeared is the the Department's history page http://www.hmce.gov.uk/about/ourhistory/customsrecords.htm - it had Timelines and  links to Archives PRO etc  

HM Revenue & Customs: History is the new page but the link to Customs did not work 6/2010 and I've sent an Alert to the webmaster. Best I could find on the site is HM Revenue & Customs: Seized! Revenue and Customs Uncovered which really has links to The Museum http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/customs/
which has a lot of good history

A Historyat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs_and_Excise_department or HM Customs and Excise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

and The National Archives http://www.ndad.nationalarchives.gov.uk/AH/19/detail.html

Records for HM Customs officers and Excise men - they used to be separate services - are held at PRO/TNA Kew http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Most documents have the prefix CUST example - minutes of Board of Customs CUST39 
It requires a personal visit or you employ a researcher they have a list of people at the site TNA/PRO.
The National Archives | NDAD | HM Customs and Excise
Try PROCAT catalogue Officers of Customs - http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

The Custom House was the HQ of HM Customs. It is the place where importers go to pay the custom duties on goods.
Usually they would use a customs agent (private company) to prepare an entry which detailed the goods and ship on which goods had been imported into the London docks. The officers at the Customs House received the monies and
checked calculations - and ensured all goods on a ship's manifest did eventually get a customs entry. Cuystoms Officers were located at the Docks and would check and release the goods when entry was seen.

This has a good painting of the building. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/LONcustom.htm

Family Tree Magazine UK in April 2004 had an excellent article on researching C&E officers.

This Port of London  site has a lot of detail on Customs in London 
 and if you are interested in The Port of London look at the other links with pictures of local offices in the Docks.