In my history class, I've noticed that most of the wars fought that we study, especially around the age of colonialism, Britain seemed to have a hand in. It seems like their total military casualties would be astronomically high. They fought all over the place, from Opium Wars, to territorial wars in Africa, to both World Wars. I'm just curious to see if I can get a rough estimate on how many troops they have lost through such an expansive military existence.
I realize that it is going to be very hard to get number, because they have been around so long, so sorry if this is a dumb question.
During the 18th Century Britain was hard-pushed to find and army of more than 30,000 fully equipped soldiers and was constantly making up losses from militia regiments, this grew larger in later years due to the Industrial Revolution.
As far as casualties from fighting are concerned, many more were actually caused by disease before the late 19th Century, than by wounds. In 1796, in the West Indies, about 14,000 men were killed, almost all by yellow fever, dysentery and malaria
" It has been calculated that 43,750 white British troops died in the West Indies between 1793 and 1801, just over half of those who had been sent, to which must be added between 19,000 and 24,000 men of the navy and transports" The Command of the Ocean by N. A. M. Rodger.
As far as the 20th Century is concerned, without the British Commonwealth, there is no way Britain could have carried on with WW1 or 2 after the first year or so. She did not have the manpower necessary, so casualties from Commonwealth countries must be factored in, including the 18th/19th Century wars in India where local troops were used a lot.