Figure 1.--The CDV portrait of this unidentified boy was taken in Northamptonshire. He looks to be about 5-years old. The studio was W.G. Page, Oxford Street, Daventry. He wears a sailor suit without the three-stripe detailing. The cap had a 'HMS Pilot' tally. We note a 'HNP Pilot' launched in 1879. It was originally a water transport cargo brig. That seems a unlikely ship for a boy's tally, unless perhaps his father was the captain. It does seem to match the approximate date of the portrait here. A reader writes, "I stumbled across your website while researching the 'HMS Pilot'. I can offer an explanation, the 'Pilot' was actually a sail training brig attached to the 'HMS Impregnable' out of Plymouth. That would explain why a young boy it wearing it. I have been unable to locate an image of the 'Pilot' itself, but am still on the hunt! For interest sake, we here at the Vancouver Maritime Museum have its figurehead, which we affectionately call 'Steady Eddie'." [Edgar] The boy is too young to be a trainee, but perhps hos older brother was.

British boys wore avariety of trousers with sailor suits. Boys mostly wore long trousers in the early-19th century. The sailor suit appeared as a bioys' style at just about the same time that we begin to see shortened lebngth pants for younger boys (mid-19th cebntury). The type of pants worn with sailor suits thus varied over time. The first uniform trousers worn by British enlisted sailors (ratings) with the first sailor suits were bell-botton trousers. This was the scaled down uniform Prince worn by Prince Edward (Bertie) in the famous Winterhalter portrait (1846). Younger boys at mid-century began to wear shortened-length pants ad we see some boys wearing these pants with middly blouses. We see boys wearing sailor suits with bloomer knickers, knee pants, and long trousers. We do not have many photographs from mid-century, but we do have some from the late-19th century. Much more information is available from the 20th century. We see boys weraring sailor suits with knee pants and after World War I, short pants. Long pants sailor suits were also worn. Even though the sailor suit originated in England and the Royal Navy had enormous prestige, we do not commonly see boys much more than 8-10 years of age. We see much older boys wearing ssailor suits on the Continent. This affected the rousers the boys wore to a degree.

Chronology

British boys wore avariety of trousers with sailor suits. Boys mostly wore long trousers in the early-19th century. The sailor suit appeared as a bioys' style at just about the same time that we begin to see shortened lebngth pants for younger boys (mid-19th cebntury). The type of pants worn with sailor suits thus varied over time. The first uniform trousers worn by British enlisted sailors (ratings) with the first sailor suits were bell-botton trousers. This was the scaled down uniform Prince worn by Prince Edward (Bertie) in the famous Winterhalter portrait (1846). Younger boys at mid-century began to wear shortened-length pants ad we see some boys wearing these pants with sailor blouses. We see boys wearing sailor suits with bloomer knickers, knee pants, and long trousers. We do not have many photographs from mid-century, but we do have some from the late-19th century. Much more information is available from the 20th century. We see boys weraring sailor suits with knee pants anbd after World War I, short pants. Long pants sailor suits were also worn. Even though the sailor suit originated in England and the Royal Navy had enormous prestige, we do not commonly see boys much more than 8-10 years of age. We see much older boys wearing sailor suits on the Continent. This affected the trousers the boys wore to a degree.

Types

We note English boys wearing all the different types of trousers with sailor suits. This has included long trousers, including bell bottons, knee pants, bloomer knickers, and short pants. The popularity and cut of these different types varied over time, affeted by general fashion trends. Long pants were the first trousers we note being worn with sailor suits. As the fashion becomes increasingly fashionable and popular we begin to see other types of trousers. Bloomer knickers seem popular at mid century. The boy here wearing bloomer knickers in 1879 is a good example (figure 1). Knee pants also appear, but initially they were not necesarily cut at knee length. Knee pants gradually got shorter, especially by the 1890s. We begin to see short trousers in the 20th century as knee pants gradually evolved into shorts. We do not yet have suffient English images to assess how popular the various types were. After World War I (1914-18) we only see long and short pants and no longer see knee pants and bloomer knickers that were popular in the 19th century.

Ages

Chronological trends in trouser fashion seem more important than age trends. This is a little different than with other types of suits. As shortened-length trousers became more popular for boys, sailor suits were one of the few outfits commonly worn by younger boys with long pants. That is not to say that that most boys wore sailor suits with long pants, but long pants in the late-19th and early-20th century were an option for even younger boys that was not the case for other outfits. And unlike the Continent we do no see many older English boys wearing sailior suits. This is in part because well-to-do boys attented boarding school beginning about 8 years of age. And except for the younger boys, sailor suits were not commonly worn ar these schools.

Social Class

Hosiery

We note the boys wearing shortened-length pants as part of sailor suits mostly wearing them with long stockings in the late-19th century, usually dark long stockings. We see boys wearing ankle socks, three-quarter socks and knee socks with sailor suits in the 20th century, but long stockings were not very common. We see long stockings in the early-20th century, but they quickly disappeared as the century progressed. We see girls wearing them a little longer than boys, but by the 1930s they were not very common. Some schools required girls to wear them, but even that was declining.

Sources

Edgar, Lea. Librarian & Archivist, W.B. & M.H. Chung Library & Leonard G. McCann Archives, Vancouver Maritime Museum., E-Mail message (May 30. 2017).

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Created: 1:21 AM 6/20/2009
Last updated: 5:56 PM 5/30/2017