The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS was the primer civil service of the Government of Ceylon under the British colonial rule and immediate post Independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of the executive administration of the country to various degrees until Ceylon gained self-rule in 1948. Until it was abolished on 1 May 1963 it functioned as the permanent bureaucracy or secretariat of Crown employees that supported the Government of Ceylon.