Scottish School Uniform: Individual Schools--Arbelour House


Figure 1.--These Scottish boys at Arbelour House wear blue cord shorts with blue sweaters and ties. This is there everyday school uniform.

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. Aberlour House originally used the same uniforms as it was the prep school for Gordonstoun. At some point they dropped the "Morning Uniform" and replaced the wollen shorts with the corduroy ones. In 2004 Aberlour House moved to a new purpose built Junior School on the Gordonstoun campus.

Background Information

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 moved to a new purpose built Junior School on the Gordonstoun campus.

Uniform

Aberlour House originally used the same uniforms as it was the prep school for Gordonstoun. At some point they dropped the "Morning Uniform" and replaced the wollen shorts with the corduroy ones. A reader tells us, "Aberlour House was my prep-school too. The photograph was taken between 4-8pm on weekday afternoon in the autumn term 1989, when the guys were all aged 12-13yrs and in sixth form (the last year of prep school). The month was probably September because of light in clear evening sky. They are sitting on the steps down to the sports pitches in front of the main building. The flash photograph gives misleading colour. The uniform shorts and jersey were navy blue, and the socks silver-grey. The two guys in the centre wear puple woolen ties because they are "officers" ie senior prefects. The outer two wear blue woolen ties because they have lower ranks. What cannot be seen in the photograph is the short flash 1inch by 1.5 inches of silver-grey ribband sewn on the left breast of the jersey for all pupils except new boys/girls. The two in the middle would have had a purple flash above the silver flash if they were "officer candidates" or just a purple flash if they were "full officers". All four went on to Gordonstoun the following Autumn term. The three on the right were in Altyre House with me. The guy on the left went to Cumming House. He is now an officer in the British army Air Corps, flying helicopters. Aberlour House was closed a couple of years ago. The remnants were moved to Gordonstoun, and still use the name Aberlour House. The year before the closure the uniform was changed, scrapping the shorts and V-neck jerseys. I criticized this to the then headmaster, saying I wanted to send my children to a school which the same uniform as when I had been there, because I had liked it, and it would provide a link between generations. The shorts were unusual in that they had no hip pockects, so that boys would not look sloppy walking around with their hands in their pockets. They had a patch pocket at the back on the right, and button flies. They were 100% cotton corduroy and tended to fade noticably by the 3rd or fourth hand-me-down. The lining was white nylon mesh which was cold when you first put them on in the morning. The uniform was much warmer than the black polyester trousers and lighter v-necks worn at Gordonstoun. Wearing shorts was not an inhibition against snoball fighting or making ice-slides on the drives in winter. Although the uniform was smarter than most prepschool's daily wear it was hard wearing and we did not have different uniform for formal occasions. We were allowed to wear kilts instead of shorts when going out of the school and on Sunday evenings for the (chapel) service. Next year I should retrieve my photo-albums and may be able to offer some more information."

Gordonstoun School

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 aexoeriences. Hann also believe in community service. Gordonstoun was also the public (private secondary) school chosen for Prince Charles.







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Created: 9:44 PM 12/23/2004
Last updated: 5:41 PM 12/24/2004