R v Page [1954] 1 QB 170
Courts-martial – foreigner killed abroad by British soldier – Extraterritorial jurisdiction
Facts
A British soldier, Harry Richard Page (HRP), killed an Egyptian national in Egypt and was convicted of murder of an Egyptian national by a court-martial. HRP was convicted under section 9 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (1861 Act) which stated that where a British national commits murder of a person of any nationality, and commits it anywhere outside of the United Kingdom, whether within the Queen’s dominions or not, the offence can be dealt with in any place where that person is apprehended or in custody, as if it had been committed in England. This act was applied by a court-martial under section 41 of the Army Act 1881 (1881 Act), which allows trial by court-martial of a person subject to military law who commits murder. HRP appealed against his conviction.
Issues
HRP claimed that a court-martial did not have jurisdiction to try and convict a British solider of murder where the murder was not on British soil or the victim was not British.
Decision/Outcome
The conviction was upheld. There is a general rule of English law that offences committed by British nationals outside of England are not punishable by the English criminal law. However, the combined effect of section 9 of the 1861 Act and section 41 of the 1881 Act was that where a person is subject to military law, they can be tried abroad by a court-martial for any offence, wherever committed and whatever nationality the victim, which would be an offence against the law of England, including murder.
Updated 20 March 2026
This case note accurately describes the facts, issues, and outcome of R v Page [1954] 1 QB 170. The case remains good law as an authority on the extraterritorial jurisdiction of courts-martial over British service personnel.
Readers should note, however, that the legislative framework described in the article has been significantly updated. The Army Act 1881 was replaced by the Army Act 1955, which was itself superseded by the Armed Forces Act 2006 (in force from 2009), which now governs the discipline and trial of service personnel by the Service Justice System, including the Court Martial. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861, section 9 remains in force, though the broader statutory framework for extraterritorial jurisdiction over service personnel now falls under the 2006 Act. The core legal principle from R v Page — that service personnel subject to military law may be tried by court-martial for offences such as murder committed abroad against non-British victims — remains applicable, but any modern application of this principle should be considered in light of the Armed Forces Act 2006 rather than the Acts cited in the case itself.
