History

Maryland Council of Defense (1941)

government · founded 1941

Created by Chapter 567 of the Acts of 1941 (Senate Bill 465), which added a new sub-title and eight new sections to Article 41 of the Annotated Code and named twenty-six original members including Governor Herbert R. O'Conor and Attorney General William C. Walsh. The Governor named its chairman, filled every vacancy 'however occurring' and could enlarge it to forty. Its powers of appropriation ran from mobilising and maintaining the National Guard to anything 'deemed necessary and proper... for the defense of the State, the safety of its people, and the protection of property'. The same act repealed Chapter 24 of the Extraordinary Session of 1917, which had created the First World War body of the same name. Eight months later its authority reached the Ocean City council chamber through the Worcester County Council of Civilian Defense.

In the record (1)

  1. 1941 · 1941-04-28

    The machinery that reached Ocean City in December was built in Annapolis in the spring: Chapter 567 of 1941 created a new Maryland Council of Defense and repealed the one left over from the last war.

    1941 was a Maryland General Assembly year — Session 326, 1 January to 31 March 1941, a single regular session with no special session, checked in the Archives of Maryland session table rather than assumed from the biennial rule. Chapter 567 of the Acts of 1941 (Senate Bill 465), printed at pages 978-981 of Archives of Maryland volume 582, added a new sub-title and eight new sections to Article 41 of the Annotated Code: 'The Maryland Council of Defense, hereinafter designated as the "Council", is hereby created', with twenty-six named original members including Governor Herbert R. O'Conor and Attorney General William C. Walsh, and with power in the Governor to name its chairman, fill every vacancy 'however occurring', and enlarge it to forty. Its funding purposes run from 'mobilizing, equipping, compensating, transporting, supplying and maintaining' the National Guard to anything else 'deemed necessary and proper... for the defense of the State, the safety of its people, and the protection of property'. The act expressly repealed Chapter 24 of the Extraordinary Session of 1917 — the First World War body of the same name. Eight months later that chain of authority ran down through a Worcester County Council of Civilian Defense to a Thursday-evening meeting in the Ocean City municipal building.

    Maryland Council of DefenseWorcester County Council of Defense

    Source · checked 2026-08-11