British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914

PART I Natural-born British Subjects

1 Definition of natural-born British subject

(1) The following persons shall be deemed to be natural-born British subjects, namely :—

(a) Any person born within His Majesty's dominions and allegiance; and

(b) Any person born out of His Majesty's dominions whose father was, at the time of that person's birth, a British subject, and who fulfils any of the following conditions, that is to say, if either—

(i) his father was born within His Majesty's allegiance; or

(ii) his father was a person to whom a certificate of naturalization had been granted; or

(iii) his father had become a British subject by reason of any annexation of territory; or

(iv) his father was at the time of that person's birth in the service of the Crown; or

(v) his birth was registered at a British consulate within one year or in special circumstances, with the consent of the Secretary of State, two years after its occurrence, or, in the case of a person born on or after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and fifteen, who would have been a British subject if born before that date, within twelve months after the first day of August, nineteen hundred and twenty-two; and

(c) Any person born on board a British ship whether in foreign territorial waters or not:

Provided that the child of a British subject, whether that child was born before or after the passing of this Act, shall be deemed to have been born within His Majesty's allegiance if born in a place where by treaty, capitulation, grant, usage, sufferance, or other lawful means, His Majesty exercises jurisdiction over British subjects:

Provided also that any person whose British nationality is conditional upon registration at a British consulate shall cease to be a British subject unless within one year after he attains the age of twenty-one, or within such extended period as may be authorised in special cases by regulations made under this Act—

(i) he asserts his British nationality by a declaration of retention of British nationality, registered in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations made under this Act; and

(ii) if he is a subject or citizen of a foreign country under the law of which he can, at the time of asserting his British nationality, divest himself of the nationality of that foreign country by making a declaration of alienage or otherwise, he divests himself of such nationality accordingly

(2) A person born on board a foreign ship shall not be deemed to be a British subject by reason only that the ship was in British territorial waters at the time of his birth.

(3) Nothing in this section shall, except as otherwise expressly provided, affect the status of any person born before the commencement of this Act.

(4) The certificate of a Secretary of State that a person was at any date in the service of the Crown shall, for the purposes of this section, be conclusive.