Winston Churchill, aged six, is named on the census

Indexes from the 1881 census have been searchable on the web site for over a year, but pay-per-view images of actual pages are also now available.

During the next two years, all censuses from 1841 to 1891 will become available in the same way.

Famous names in the 1881 census include Winston Churchill and Charles Darwin.

Queen Victoria is also included, living at Windsor Castle with other members of the Royal Family including Eugenie, the "Ex-Empress of the French".

Charles Darwin was living with his large family at Down House in Kent, while Karl Marx, living in St Pancras, said his occupation was "author, political economy".

Donald Duck is among more than 26m people listed.

The total number of people in the 1881 census for England, Wales and the Channel Islands is 26,496,716.

Other memorable names include a man called Donald Duck, a GP called Dr Robert De'ath, William Neal, who had no occupation because he was "too idle", and the Munslow twins called Bank and Holiday.

"This is the first time that you can view the original 1881 census books online," said Mark Pearsall, family historian at the National Archives.

"The indexes are already available online, but it's exciting to see the original pages as they were written 123 years ago.