Figure 1.-The English Scout here wears the green shirt worn until 2001. The shirt had breast pockets with flats and buttons. On the new uniform the shirt has only one breast pocket without a flap, but does have a Button. The trousers worn hear are school grey trousers. At this time Scout wore either their school uniform trousers or army green denim trousers. Scouts Troops could decide which they preferred. Usually it was one or the other and not a mix.

Lord Baden Powell selected a uniform of Smokey Bear wide-brimmed hats, kahaki shirts and short pants, with kneesocks. This uniform has a rather military look to us today, but that was not Baden Powell's intentioms. He was in fact trying to move away from the "spit-and-polish" uniforms of some other youth groups like the Boys' Brigade. The Scout uniform garments selected by Baden Powell proved tremendously influential and were adopted by Scout groups forming in different countries around the world. Gradually other countries introduced national garments into their uniforms, but the original garments selected by Baden Powell were and continue to be highly influential. The garments have gone through many changes, especially in 1969 when long pants were introduced.

Background

Baden Powell gave considerable thought to the uniforms fior the new Scout movement. I'm sure he must have written in detail about why he selected the uniform ans specific garments. I have not yet come across such writing, but it would certainly make a valuable addition to HBU. B-P was aiming to make the uniform look UN-MILITARY. It was youth organisations which one might have expected to be of pacific intent, such as the Boys' Brigade and Church Lads' Brigade, which adopted military trappings. The religious groups also drilled with rifles (real or wooden) in the early days, which the Scouts would never have done.

Individual Garments

HBU has just begun to collect information on the individual garments worn by English Scouts. This is a relatively complicated topic as uniforms have changed over time. In addition, there hae been options and in many cases Cubs and Scouts chose to ignore some of the official rules about uniform garments. Also there were a wide variety of accessories, badges and patches which Scouts have worn over time. A knowledge of the different uniforms can help date unidentified images, but only roughly as Scouts have not always worn the precisely correct uniform at the appropriate time.

Headgear

Baden Powell's choice of the Smokey Bear or Lemmon Sqeezer hat set a style which still serves as a virtual symbol of Scouting around the world. I'm not sure what the inspiration was for the hat. It looks more American and British and was in fact the hat worn by the American Army at the time. It was adopted by most other national Scout associations. It continued to be widely worn in Britain and other countries through the 1940s. The British army adopted the beret in the late 1930s. Scouts were still wearing smokey bear style hats, which weren't that popular and were considered a bit old fashioned and impractical. So the British Scouts copied the army and adopted the beret as part of their uniform. Photos show that in the 1940s and 1950s both styles of headgear were worn in tandem but by the late 1950s the old scout hat was more or less extinct. The peaked cap worn bu Cubs and now Beavers was almost as widly seen as a symbol of Scouting as the old lenon-sqeezer hat.

Neckerchief/Scarfe

Scouts have had standard neckerchiefs. The Scout here wears one. Their are also destinctive unit neckerchiefs worn to stress the local unit.

Shirt

The English Scout here wears the green shirt worn until 2001. The shirt had breast pockets with flats and buttons (figure 1). On the new uniform the shirt has only one breast pocket without a flap, but does have a Button. Cubs do not wear shirts. For many years they wore green sweaters. We noted some Cubs in warm weaher replacing the green sweaters with green "T"-sirts, but this was not very common.

Belt

Trousers

An English reader tells us that in the 1950s that Scouts trouser's were done in gabersine. Not all boys wore the regilastion trousers. He remembers a farmer's son who wore brown cord shorts to scouts, instead of the standard-issue gabardine. The material for the khaki shorts prior to 1967 was not unlike that of chinos although gabardine is probably nearer the mark, bearing in mind their comparative weight. The scout regulations always gave alternatives, just so that less fortunate families could send their boys to parade in school trousers (the same applied to cubs, whose shorts could be of various colours apart from grey). The new scout uniform however included terylene long trousers, styled like school trousers of the time and in a shade of brown reminiscent of milk (but not too milky) chocolate. The reference to army style and a khaki shade is misleading; indeed part of the reason for the change was to distance the new uniform from the military because the old (short-sleeve) khaki shirt had been very military in appearance. In the 1970s the trousers changed (without great announcement or comment) to a more obvious brown shade (not khaki) and the seat was styled so as to have the kind of seam you get at the back of jeans but without the patch pockets; a single back pocket was let into that seam on the right hand side - ie the conventional side for the UK. The trousers the Scout here wears are school grey trousers (figure 1). At this time Scout wore either their school uniform trousers or army green denim trousers. Scouts Troops could decide which they preferred. Usually it was one or the other and not a mix.

Socks

Socks were important when wearing uniform short trousers. Scouts for many years wore tan kneesocks. Cubs wore grey kneesocks. They were worn with garters that had colored tabs under the turn over tops. An exception here were the Cubs who wore kneesocks that did not have turn over tops.

Accessories and Badges

British Scouts wear a variety of accessories, patches and badges. The best known accessory is the woggle (neckerchief slide). There have also been belt buckles. Scouts also wore colored tabs on their kneesocks. A range of badges and patches have been worn. These have varied over time. These have included plumes which were only worn by senior scouters.