I gave it him

The phrase 'I gave it him' can be heard in British English, if not in other dialects.

While not standard English in any way, it is strange because it breaks all the rules. Usually the indirect object is expressed either with word order:

Subject/indirect object/direct object or Subject/object/indirect object with 'to'

So either

'Give him the book' or 'Give the book to him'

Yet this phrase is simply Subject/object/indirect object. Strictly speaking it should mean 'I give him to it', yet it doesn't.

I was wondering, is this used outside of British English? And how did it come about? I don't believe it can be used with anything other than two pronouns, where one is 'it'.

Although I'm American, I have never seen or heard this before, not even by a Brit. If it is used, it must be very colloquial. It sounds very awkward and incorrect to me.

It's used.

Give it (to) me!

It sounds old-fashioned.

<<,Give it (to) me! >>

Granted, yet for this I would say: "Give me it"

Once you get passed the awkwardness of how it sounds though, "I gave it him" DOES kinda sound like it means "I gave him to it"

like if you had a situation where a wife was saying:
'My husband is always drinking. His alcoholism is something that I cannot brook, so *I gave it him* so that he could wallow until he gets sick and tired of it and straightens up'...something to that effect