The British amateur military tradition of raising auxiliary forces for home defence long preceded the establishment of a standing army. This was a model that was widely emulated in British colonies during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, many of the local forces raised in Britain were disbanded, before renewed fears of French invasion led to a major revival of the militia in 1852.This volume of essays seeks to examine the role of citizen soldiers in Britain and its empire during the Victorian period. Chapters outline the general development and military performance of auxiliary military forces across the British empire and describe the wider social, political and cultural context 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.