The Secretaries were the Society's principal executive officers, responsible directly to the Committee. Initially there were three: one Anglican, one Free Churchman and one resident foreigner, all ordained men. In 1826 the Foreign Secretary resigned, and after several unsuccessful attempts to replace him, the post was discontinued, though an Assistant Foreign Secretary remained until 1895, to deal with foreign-language correspondence. It appears that there was no clear division between the duties of the two remaining Secretaries until about 1890, when the overseas work was divided between them on a geographical basis, countries being grouped into 'A' and 'B' fields. In 1964 a more radical change was made, when one Secretary was assigned to the home work, and to other to the work overseas. In 1966 a third Secretary (a layman) was added, to deal with internal administration, and the Departments in Bible House were grouped into three divisions. In 1973 a 'Senior Mangement Group' was set up, composed of the Secretaries and Heads of Department, and after further changes the 'Executive Director' emerged as the Society's chief officer.