Introduction

A Victorian traveller in the settled part of the British Empire at any time between the 1850s and the 1890s would have encountered much that was exotic and novel. Given the persistence of the amateur military tradition in the United Kingdom, it was inevitable that militia and volunteer forces would be extended to the English and British empires. A militia seemed unwise in view of the potential volatility of some settler communities such as gold miners and, while South Australia enacted legislation, it remained dormant. The first manifestations of the British citizen soldier tradition in New Zealand were the Kororareka Association in 1838, and the New Zealand Company Militia in 1840 as settlement expanded. If the amateur military tradition in Ireland reflected divisions of religion and perceived national identity, it can be noted, as Tim Stapleton suggests in, that two traditions also existed in South Africa.