British Empire

[Drusilla1S]

At the height of the British Empire, how many British soldiers, administrators, contractors and dependents would have been based on foreign shores?

[dot.hawkes]

As a start I would check the 1851 census act to ascertain which colonies and provinces under British Rule were covered by the act, (all I have to assume) then locate the statistical analysis which should contain a head count and will have been published shortly after the return was collated, as they are in modern days.

There will be various classes of records at the PRO (probably Kew) that will include these i think but you can check the RO online guide for the claSS NUMBERS.

You should also be looking for figures from Ships at sea which would also have had to fill in the returns I believe.

1851 is a good year to start anyway as the Empire was indeed at it's height though not too far off the Indian Mutinies if my history is still in my heead.

Anyway good luck, but there may already be a reported figure in the census statistics anyway.

[hugh_jarse]

The British empire was at it's zenith in 1919 just after the first world war, due to britain having been one of the victors they got parts of the old German empire after the treatie of Versailles (June 1919).
It would be almost imposible to esimate the figures involved, that would take considerable research, however it must have run into millions of soldiers, administrators etc.

[Drusilla1S]

I've been searching and searching. Is it possible the British army in India was only 45,000 strong and the civil service only amounted to 1000 personnel?

Obviously, these figures do not take into account the many thousands of Indians who fought and served the British Raj, but it does seem a rather miniscule figure, especially when compared with the 500,000 US military personnel, their dependents and contractors based around our hi-tech world today.

Does anyone know of a site with figures about the Empire?

[morbidstorm]

The amount of British servicemen based in the empire would be considerably lower then you might expect. The armies based in the colonies were led by British officers but the vast majority of the armies were locals. Casualty figures from the wars in India between Britain and France would read something like 12 British officers and 32,000 Indians. That is how it remained so successful, and why America appears to go for the overkill, they just dont have the mentality of a ruling class such as the British had.

[Forresl]

Too many!