British Subject and British Protected Person
The 1981 Act retained the category of British subject without citizenship as British subject. British subjects are mainly people from the Indian sub-continent and Ireland. It ended the use of the term for those British subjects who had one of the various national citizenships, though the term Commonwealth citizen continues to be used in that regard.
Persons who held British subject status based on connections with what is now the Republic of Ireland before 1949 remain entitled to resume that status if they wish.
The status of British subject under the 1981 Act cannot be transmitted to children, although the Home Secretary has discretion to register a child as a British subject. This discretion is very rarely exercised.
British subject status can be renounced, but cannot be resumed for any reason. British subjects (except those connected with Ireland) lose their British subject status automatically if they acquire any other nationality.
For further information on the present use of the term "British subject", see British subject.
The 1981 Act also retained another category, that of British Protected Person (BPP), which is not a form of nationality as such (BPPs were never British subjects), but a status conferred on citizens of states under British protection. It has been argued that since BPPs are not considered stateless, they must hold some form of nationality, and that nationality must be a form of British nationality.
British Protected Persons are those who had a connection with a former British Protectorate, Protected State, League of Nations mandate or United Nations trust territory. These were mainly in Asia and Africa. British Overseas Citizens, by contrast, are those who have such a relationship with former British colonies. (Protectorates, Protected States, Mandates and Trust Territories were never, legally speaking, British colonies.) A British Protected Person will lose that status upon acquiring any other nationality or citizenship.
Read more about this topic: History Of British Nationality Law
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