English Boy: David--Beginning School and Birthday (1953-55)


Figure 1.--Here we see David in 1953 in front of an apartment where he presumably lived. I'm not sure how common these sailor suits for little boys were in England during the 1950s. But the cars and license plates look English to us. Notice that the shorts are elasticised rather than button-on.

A HBC reader has sent us some images of a boy named David. We do not have his last name or know anything about him and his family, except what can be deduced from the images. Some of the snapshots are dated which is helpful. The background of the snapshots provides a lot of useful information. The cars and license plates look English to us. The family seems to have lived in an apartment. They strongly suggests that he is English, although we are not entirely sure as there are some analagous clues such as a German-like first day cone. We know, however, that he spoke English because of his birtday cards. Often school uniform items help identify English children, but British boys attending state schools did not commonly have uniforms until the 1960s and some of our snapshots are David as a pre-schooler. The way he is dressed strongly suggests a state school. Perhaps a reader who knows more about cars and license plates with know more. He wears different outfits including a sailorsuit. We also see a snapshot of David all done up with a bow tie and vest for his 6th birthday.

Family

A HBC reader has sent us some images of a boy named David. We do not have his last name or know anything about him and his family, except what can be deduced from the images. The family seems to have lived in an apartment. We see the apartment where they lived. It looks like a middle-class apartment building, suggesting that David's family was comfortable, but not well-to-do. Some but not many of the residents owned cars.

Chronology

We know when the snapshots of David were taken because some are dated to 1953-55. A reader tells us, "The apartment appears to have been built in the 1930s for middle income family." Of course thanks to Herr Hitler and the Luftwaffe, there was a ;ot of building in London after the War.

Location

We are almost certain that David is English. The background of the snapshots provides a lot of useful information. The cars and license plates look English to us (figure 1). They strongly suggests that he is English, although we are not entirely sure as there are some analagous clues such as a German-like first day cone. We know, however, that he spoke English because of his birtday cards displayed in the living room. Often school uniform items help identify English children, but British boys attending state schools did not commonly have uniforms until the 1960s and some of our snapshots are David as a pre-schooler. The way he is dressed strongly suggests a state school. Perhaps a reader who knows more about cars and license plates with know more. A British reader tells us, "The location is England. The apartmemt building suggest London."

School

We see David off to his first day of school in 1954. Presumably this is the first day of pre-school. He would have been 5 years old here. He is wearing a junior sailor suit with dark elasticized short pants, ankle socks, and sandals. Button-on shorts were more common in the 1940s, but elasticized shorts for younger boys became common in the 1950s. The cone he is carrying looks rather German. German children received a cone full of goodies on their first day of school. We have not noted this before in England. We are not sure how common that was in England. Nor do we know what he has in his left hand. Here he looks to be in front of a house rather than an apartment building. Perhaps the family moved from the apartment.

6th Birthday

We see David on his 6th birthday during 1955. He is in the family living room surrounded by all his birthday cards and baloons. It is David's 6th birthday. The tulips suggest it is Spring, perhaps April. David is wearing a bow tie, V-neck sweater, and bow tie. For the party he has slip on shoes rather than sandals. Note the electric heater un the fire place. People in London and other big cities used to heat their himes with coal. But to reduce the pollution problem, electric heaters like this replaced coal fires. Presumably he had his friends over for a party, but here we only see David. And we don't get to see his presents.

Clothing

David wears different outfits in family snapshots. We see him wearing a kind of junior including sailor suit. These junior sailor suits were commonly done as button-on outfirs in the 1940s. Here David has elazticized shorts for his sailor suits (figure 1). We also see a snapshot of David all done up with a bow tie and vest for his 6th birthday. We also see him wearing what looks like a jacket with sailor stripes at the sleeve cuff. He wears different kinds of short pants. He usually wore sabndals with ankle socks. Dressed up for his birthday he wears slip on shoes.








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Created: 7:07 PM 10/22/2010
Last updated: 9:29 PM 10/23/2010