SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Though officially ruled by the Ottoman Entire, Egypt was under British occupation between 1882 and 1922. Most studies about the British in Egypt during this time focus on the political and administrative activities of British officials based on government documents or their memoirs and biographies. This thesis focuses on various aspects of the British community in Cairo based on sources that have been previously overlooked such as census records, certain private papers, and business, newspaper, military and missionary archives. At the outset, this discussion introduces demographic data on the British community to establish its size, residential location and context among other foreign communities and the wider Egyptian society. Then it deliberates on the occasional ambiguous boundaries that identified members of the community from non-members as well as the symbols and institutions that united the community. Ensuing chapters on the community's socio-occupational diversity and criminal activities suggest that the British community in Cairo was not homogeneous. The community consisted of not only law-abiding upper middle class officials but of an assortment of businessmen, missionaries, and working-class maids and labourers; some of whom were involved in crimes and misdemeanours. The analysis concludes by investigating the diversity of reactions of Cairo's Britons to the challenge of World War I and the subsequent revolutionary period of 1919-1922. Due to time and space constraints, the discussion concentrates on the British community in Cairo, since for the most part, more Britons resided in Cairo than Alexandria. However, where appropriate to the thesis' key themes, data on the British in Alexandria will be included.