The British Empire at War

GREAT BRITAIN is not a military state. It maintained a relatively small professional standing army, sufficient for its needs in ordinary times—well disciplined, well equipped, and with splendid traditions which have been lived up to in the present war. Before the war, the total effective strength of the regular forces of the British Empire, including the Indian Army and Colonial and native Indian Corps, was 243,357. The Territorials and reserves of all kinds numbered 468,218, a total force ...