Figure 1.--This unidentified English boy, we think in Lanchahire, wears a flat cap rather than a school cap with his suit. Note the Eton collar. The photograph is undated, but we would guess was taken about 1920. He may be a farm boy or visiting grandfather's farm.

English boys wore various styles of flat caps. We are not sure about the chronology. They may have appeared in the late-19th century, but we can not yet confirm that. Our 19th cetury Eglish archive is limited and we can not yet tell just when these capa first appeared. So far our images are from the 1900s-20s. We suspect they appeared in the 1890s, but this is justa n estimate at this time.We see them giving way to school caps in the 1920s. We see them mostly in the early 20th century, but our 19th century English archive is still limited. They seem the most common during the 1900s-20s. We see quite a number of boys wearing them in the 1900s and somewhat less commonly during in the 1910s. Mny photogrphs of parks and street scenes show many boys wearing both flat caps school caps. We note them through the 1920s, but they are not very commn in the 30s. Boys mostly wore their school caps. We see them everywhere. We do not see any boys wearng them in the 1940s after World War II. The only exception was a London prepschool where they were worn during the 1950s. That is the only sccool we know of that used the flat cap rather than the standard school cap.

Created: 2:48 AM 7/15/2014
Last updated: 2:48 AM 7/15/2014