Figure 1.--All of the boys here at Greenock Academy wear blazers, although the color is unknown. The junior boys--with one exception wear shorts. HBC is unsure what the regulations were. |
|
Clothing trends at Scottish schools can be followed by a look at different types of individual schools at various locations
throughout the country. HBC at this time has images from only a few schools but hopes to expand this section. Except for the
kilt, schoolwear styles are quite similar to England--perhaps a bit more conservative. Some information is available on individual schools to illustrate school uniform trends at the various types of schools. Schools have had different uniforms over time, but there is great similarities as so many schools used the same basic styles. This is especually true of the boys' uniforms. There is much more difference over time as schools are constantly updating their uniforms.
Arbelour House was the preparatory school associated with Gordonstoun School. Dr. Kurt Hahn, Headmaster of Salem School, preceived the NAZI danger from an early point, After Hitler seized power, Hahn left Germany. (One of his students, Prince Philip, did the same.) He is best known for founding Gordonstoun, but he also founded Abelour House. His philosophy was based on the fostering of individual development in a community context. Hahn founded Abelour House after woirld war II in 1947. In 2004 Aberlour House moves to a new purpose built Junior School on the Gordonstoun campus.
Boys at Scottish primary schools mostly wore short pants and kneesocks uring the 1950s--at least uring the warmer summer months. HBC is less sure about the winter. Boys at this school near Glasgow did not wear kilts. But this may have been different in more traitional areas of Scotland.
Dollar Academy, located at Dollar near Sterling, is Scotland's (and apparently) the United Kingdom's oldest co-educational day and boarding school. Coeducation in private sdchools, especially at the secondary level, was not common in Scotland and England until the 1960s. The uniform is a black blazer. The girls wears a light-colored skirt and white kneesocks. The boys wear black trousers or shorts with black kneesocks, depending on their age. Presumably there once was a cap, but I am not sure when that was dropped. Through the 1980s, younger boys wore open-necked shirts while the senior boys wore neckties. The dress uniform is a tweed jacket and kilt for both the boys and girls.
Dudley Grammar School is an English school. We mention it here because some of the boys in the 1940s were wearing open collars. We had thought that this was primarily a Scottish style, but it may have been a fashion wich developed during World War II througout Britainan then prsisted in Scotland after the War.
One of the most famous school in Scotland is Gordonstoun. The school interestingly was founded by Kurt Hann, a German who believed in providing a challenging physical as well as educational experience. Added to the normal challenging sport program of a British chool was a novel new outward bound experiences. Hann also believe in community service. Gordonstoun was also the public (private secondary) school chosen for Prince Charles.
English schools have a wide variety of names. Some are misleading. Some comprehensives, for example, kept the name of the grammar schools they replaced. Academies are private schools, often comparable to private day schools. Private schools were often named academies in Scotland, but there were some in England as well, like Grennock Academy.
HBC at this time has little information about Greenock High School or indeed Scottish high schools in general. In England during the 1950s there were selective grammar schools for the academically talented boys and secondary modern schools for the less capable boys. HBC is unsure if Scotland had the same selective system and how a high school fitted into it. While we do not at this time fully unerstand the academic program, we do know a little about the uniform. The uniform at Grennock high school in the 1950s looks to have been similar to that of Greenock Academy, although the school appaers to have permitted more individual choice.
This school is one of the major secondary schools in Glasgow, one of Scotland's two large cities. It is one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom. At this time we only have information on the Cadet Corps.
Jura is a beautiful green island off the West coast of Scotland, close to the larger island of Islay. . It has a very small poplation. It did have a small coed state primary school on the Isle of Jura. We are not sure when it was fpunded. We know it was functioning in the 1890s. A 1892 photographed showed 33 children and one male tracher. None of the boys wore kilts. The younger boys were all barefoot which was an indication of poverty. The girls all wore dresses, but without pinafores.
|
Boys at the Jean Street Primary in 1966 were wearing short pants and kneesocks. The primary as many such schools in Scotland and England had adopted uniforms in the 1960s. Both boys anf girls wore white shirts and ties, at least for the school photograph in 1969.
Keil School (which closed down I think about 1995) was a boarding school near Glasgow. The school was primarily a boarding school, intended especially for boys from the Highlands. Relatively few day boys attended the school. In its latter years it was co-educational. A Scottish reader tells us, "I have several friends who attended Keil School and have pleasant memories of it – a good school, its demise was much regretted." Kiel had a very distinctive uniform. The blazer was bright green with yellow piping. The woollen socks, which had two broad yellow stripes, were also green, as were the caps. The boys usually wore normal-type blue school shorts. Most British schools had grey shorts, but several (especially in SDcotland had blue shorts. The boys for outings and special events, wore their own kilts, with the other items of the uniform. The effect was quite colourful. The school was close to the U.S. naval base at Faslane. As a result, there were often a few American boys at the school.
We do not know a great deal about the Kirtmichael. It is located in Maybole. A 1911 image shows many of the boys wearing suits with stiff Eton collars to school. One boy wears a sailor suit. The girls wear dresses, a few with large lace collars. Some wear white or colored pinafores. Many girls have hairbows. Most of the boys, at least the younger boys, are barefoot, even the boys wearing Eton collars are barefoot.
Many Scottish schools are called "accademies". This term is not used in England. I am not sure precisely what the term accademy denoted. Thet were founded as private schools, I think mostly as secondary schools. Some are operated today along the lines of an English public (private secondary) school. Several Scottish accademies unlike public schools have junioir (primary) sections. This is the case of Morrison's Accademy. We have not yet restriced the school, but we have archived a phoyograph of a rugby team at the schools, probably from the 1980s. A former student tells us that the BBC program, "Who Rules the School" was filmed there. The school uniform was notable for the red kneesocks that the boys wore. (THe goirls wore white kneesicks.) Several Scottish schools had colored kneesoicks whereas modst English boys wore grey kneesocks.
Robert Owen and his Quaker partners used used mill profits to build a village school. One author describes teacing in the village school. "In addition to this elementary instruction, those over two were given dancing lessons and those four and upwards taught singing. Military-style exercises were also a major feature of both schools, and the sight of youthful marches led by fife and drum was frequently remarked upon by contemporaries, especially the upper class dignitaries who much approved of such
discipline. Conformity in the children was further reinforced by a 'beautiful dress of tartan cloth, fashioned in its make after the form of a Roman toga'. However, like the kilt and plaid worn by older boys this was thought by some of Robert Owen's partners to encourage sexual promiscuity. According to Captain Donald Macdonald of the Royal Engineers, who like the laird, Archibald Hamilton of Dalzell, had become a convert to the New System and who accompanied Robert Owen on the visit of inspection to Harmonie in 1824-25, the New Lanark dresses and plaids were part of the baggage. Owen showed them to fellow passengers and apparently had them copied in New York to be displayed there and in Washington along with his plans and models of the Village Scheme. The dress code for the new communities was another subject about which Robert Owen said little about unless pressed to do so."
Here we a photograph of the entire staff and pupils of a small rural primary school (ages 5-11+) in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. It was taken in 1957, at Pitcalnie School. There are 20 boys and fifteen girls: an unusual ratio but some
girls may have been absent. There was no school uniform although many children wear school uniform items. All the children have a spruced-up air, presumably for the school photograph. At least eight boys are wearing kilts, perhaps more as it is not possible to tell about all of them. Even eight boys wearing kilts seems a high proportion. It is unlikely that all these boys wore their kilts to school every day, but very likely that all did some of the time, and some did all the time.
A number of Scottish schools seemed to be named after the street where they were located. We have mo information about this school other than it is in Glasgow. We wonder about the name of the school. We are not sure what Queen Mary the street is named after. Surely not English Queen Mary (Bloody Mary). Mary Queen of Scotts is a possibility. Another possibility was the comtemporary Queen Mary, King George V's wife. Another interesting part of the name. English schools used the term public to mean private. The Scotts seem to use the term to mean state school as the term is more commonly used outside England. We have an image giving a interesting view inside the school in 1916.
We note a class portrait from St Marys Senior Secondary School in February 1957. It was Form 3A. The school did not seem to have a strict uniform code. There apparently was a school blazer, but few of the pupils wore it. Some boys wear leather jackets, rather unsusual in British schools. We do not know much about the school, but assume that it is a Catholic school. The school is now called St Marys Academy. It is located in Bathgate, Edinburgh.
This St. Ninians is a state primary school. As most Scottish primary by the 1960s, it was a coeducational school. The school in the 1960s require a standard British school uniform, although there was considerable differences among the chilren as to what they wore. The boys wore blazers jumpers, and mostly short trousers. The girls wear gymslips an suspener skirts. All the children wear ties.
Scotland is predominately Protestant, but there are a number of Catholic schools--especially in the Glasgow area because of the Irish imigrants. Scottish primary schools began introducing uniforms in the 1960s. Not all schools did so, but most catholic schools did. I'm not positive when the Catholic schools introduced uniforms, but they appear, like St. Patricks, to all have basic uniforms by the 1970s.
We know very little about St. Peter's Primary School. We assume that it is a Catholic school. We are not sure where the school was located, but would guess that it was probably Glasgow. I'm not sure what the age range was at the school. One class photo taken about 1960 looks to be children about 10-years of age. There was no required uniform. The girls all wear rather similar-;ooking dreses. dresses. The boys are dressed in a greater variety of clothes.
Here we have a scene from St. Rollox school in Glasgow. It was a state school, but given the name may have been Catholic. Quite a number of Irish immigrants lived in Glasgow and thus there were Catholic schools. Here we see a woodworking class in 1916. While girls were instructed in cookery or needlework, the boys were instructed in "manual skills". The school had a well-equipped carpentry shop. I'm not sure about what type of school this was, but it may have been a primary school. Primay schools at the time had programs for children up to 13-14 years of age. Most primary schools, however, did not have facolities like this.
We have been able to find little information about Scotus Academy. I am not sure when the school was founded. It appears to have been a Catholic School run by the Christian Brothers located in Edinburgh. The school had both primary and secondary units. An internet search turns up references to the school concerning people who attended the school. Perhaps some of our Scottish readers will know more. Some images provide us information on the school uniform. Quite a number of the boys chose to wear kilts.
HBC would be interested in any information our Scottish readers may choose to contribute about their primary or secondary school. Please feel free to contribute whatever you may recall about your school and school uniforms. ASctual accounts from readers are a very important aspect of building this site.
HBC incourages old boys and girls of these and other Scottish schools to contribute information about the school uniforms they wore and school regulations concening those uniforms. HBC is also interested what students thought about their school uniforms.
Additional information on individual schools is available in the personal experiences section.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing School Uniform Pages
[Return to the Main Scottish individual school page]
[Australia]
[England]
[France]
[Germany]
[Italy]
[Japan]
[New Zealand]
[Scotland]
[United States]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
