Army and Navy records give us a good idea of height (and nutrition) during the mid years of the 19th century.

Sandhurst students aged 16 to 19 were exceptionally tall compared to international standards and their own poorer compatriots. The high-nobility of Germany, sons of hereditary princes and barons, were as tall as the sons of the British gentry, but no one else was.

Even low-fee-paying Sandhurst students had a 10cm advantage over youth in the various US military establishments. Which is all the more startling, given that Americans males were, on average, the tallest men in the world — 5c to 6cm taller than the average British man. However, while the rich of Britain took the average up, the poor brought it down. And there were more poor.

The boys who joined the Marine Society and Sea Cadets, a charitable venture designed to supply men for the navy, were the shortest group in Europe and America. At 16, they averaged less than 1.5 m. The average difference between them and the Sandhurst boys of the same age was 22cm.

As a measure of the gap between rich and poor, that’s telling.