The Africa Publications Trust was established in 1960 to enable the Africa Bureau to gain the benefit of charitable status for areas of its work which could be seen as non-political. Its two functions were the sponsorship and supervision of research into African problems and the publication of the result of this research. The lives of the two institutions were completely interdependent until the Bureau's closure in 1978, which the Trust itself survived. They shared premises and staff. The Trust's chairman from 1960 to February 1969 was Lord Hemmingford, followed by Jane Symonds until October 1972, then Rex Collings.