It's an honour system to save women and children first, and a very good one, I think. As another poster pointed out, it's also a survival system. Men are more expendable than women and children if you want a people to survive some disaster in the long term. Amerindians knew that well, for instance, and they always attempted to save the women and children when a camp was being attacked. The men would go out and lay down their lives to give the women and children time to escape.

If the British followed that honour system, I think they were doing the right thing and they should be commended for it.