This edited collection of essays examines the role of citizen soldiers in the British empire during the Victorian period. The tradition of raising auxiliary forces from amateur soldiers had by the 1850s experienced a revival that spread to the colonies. Each essay focuses on a specific case to account for the development and military performance of different auxiliary forces across the Empire. Taken together they describe the wider social, political and cultural contexts in which these forces operated. The volume concludes with a chapter on the South African War, in which British and colonial contingents fought together, heralding the contribution that the Commonwealth would make to the Great War.

"'The contributors to this book amply demonstrate how all the far-flung, exotically-named units of Victorian citizen soldiers were thoroughly interwoven into the social, cultural and military fabric of the British Empire, and must be considered seriously in any attempt to explain its complex dynamics.'"