ABSTRACT
There was a generally accepted notion, at least in a rhetorical sense, that those who were ‘British subjects’ had a common status throughout the British dominions.1 In theory, British subject status was extended by the feudal rule of the common law to persons born within the Crown’s dominions,2 which by the 20th century was applied to all Crown colonies as well as the UK. However, the concept of a rigid code of citizenship demarcating the British and the non-British did not arise during the period of imperial expansion (Deakin, 1969, p 77). In 1907, Sir Francis Piggott wrote that, ‘There must be a multitude of persons who cannot say with certainty whether they are British subjects’ (quoted in Dummett and Nicol, 1990, p 113).3 The development of more definite nationality or citizenship statuses, for which documentary proof came to be demanded, is thus a relatively recent phenomenon.
