How a tiny island and its queen came to possess an empire so large that the sun never set on it “Britain had the might, ingenuity and limitless ambition to conquer the world” The date was 22 January 1901 and the British Empire was the largest of any in human history, but the monarch who reigned over it would not live to see another day. As Queen Victoria lay dying in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight she looked back on a reign that spanned over 63 years. She had seen her empire grow from a collection...