Prewar,they used to say the British Empire was the Empire upon which the sun NEVER sets?

To the best of my knowledge, at the height of the British Empire, when it was at its greatest extent, there was always a part of it experiencing daylight at any given point in a 24 hour period. Hence, the Empire upon which the sun never sets.

Even without the Commonwealth, we might still get away with it just by naming the protectorates. The last international conflict that anyone really "won" was the Falklands war, you may remember. (oh wow - no yankee's baled us out on that one). The British Empire will live forever - biggest Empire in history.

Surprised no-one has yet mentioned the old joke about the sun never setting on the Empire because god didn't trust the British in the dark.

It just meant there was always part of it in daylight.

British expansion and colonization around the globe, and their presence on the high seas ensured that the Crown was represented somewhere on earth wherever the sun was shining. g-day!

The British Empire had colonies around the globe. Somewhere it had to be daytime.

Most Americans think that the "colonies" was just the today's US. Not so. The English had colonies in all continents. Some continents were colonies. So, by the time the sun set in India, it rose in today's US. By the time it set in Egypt, it rose in Australia.

I've always understood the phrase to mean exactly what Grimread has already said.

No Empire now only a club called The Commonwealth. We used to have Empire Day on May 24th but this went long ago, and quite right to.