Figure 1.--

The major "dress up" occaisions were the thrice yearly visits to our grandparents in Yorkshire. For these my Mum always dressed me in a pair of "Prince of Wales check" shorts which I HATED. The term was derived from the check pattern--a sort of grey/white/black/green. A very distictive pattrn which made me stand out. This check pattern was made popular by the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII) in the late 19th century. As HBC point out, Bertie as he was called in the family had a major impact on both both boys' and mens' clothing. It became a standard for hunting and outings in the country by the Victorian elite. Sherlock Holmes was often portrayed in a cape and deerstalker hat in this pattern. The shorts thmselves were the normal style for the time. I think some wealthier men wore Prince of Wales check suits. It may have been an expensive cloth. I only had the shorts. - I think my Grandparents must have bought them. They were from Leeds where a lot of cloth was woven so maybe they got them from a local firm. They were odd in London which is why I hated them. My cousin, who lived in Richmond, Yorkshire, did wear more this type of clothing - so maybe it was cheaper up there. It was just unusual for a boy to wear patterned ones like these for best rather than his plain school ones, especially around my area. As mom absolutely insisted I wear them during our trips to visit our granparents, it must have been grandmother who purchased them for me. My elder brother had a much more acceptable blue suit with long, slightly flared trousers at this time and my younger brother wore his grey school shorts and they started ribbing me before we even left the house. We travelled by train or coach and this involved a walk to the local station to catch the tube to Kings cross main line station or Victoria coach station. Every step of the way I was acutely consious of those damned shorts and felt relief only when my grandfather met us in his car at Leeds station and whisked me out of the sight of other boys. On these visits we always wore fairly smart clothes - no jeans - so after making the initial impression on my grandmother I was allowed to wear my school shorts for visiting other relatives in the area or cotton/corduroy shorts to play in if it was Summer. One Christmas my grandparents gave me a sheepskin coat - which added to my woes the following year as it didn't cover up the "princies" as my brother had taken to calling my shorts as my school duffle coat would have.

Major Dress Up Occassions

The major "dress up" occaisions were the thrice yearly visits to our grandparents in Yorkshire. We didn't do a lot of things where we would dress up. Visiting our grandparents were one of the rare occassions for which mum insisted that we all dress up.

Prince of Wales Check Shorts

For these my Mum always dressed me in a pair of "Prince of Wales check" shorts which I HATED. The term was derived from the check pattern--a sort of grey/white/black/green. A very distictive pattrn which made me stand out. The shorts thmselves were the normal style for the time. They had a back pocket and that was on the right hand side - again making it easier to access for a right hander but I didn't like back pockets at all it and was my Mum who always put the train tickets in that pocket for safe keeping and I always had difficulty in retrieving them when the ticket collecter came around on the train (normally on purpose because I was in a bad mood about having to wear the shorts anyway. I think some wealthier men wore Prince of Wales check suits. It may have been an expensive cloth. I only had the shorts. - I think my Grandparents must have bought them. They were from Leeds where a lot of cloth was woven so maybe they got them from a local firm. They were odd in London which is why I hated them. My cousin, who lived in Richmond, Yorkshire, did wear more this type of clothing - so maybe it was cheaper up there. It was just unusual for a boy to wear patterned ones like these for best rather than his plain school ones, especially around my area. As mom absolutely insisted I wear them during our trips to visit our granparents, it must have been grandmother who purchased them for me. My brother took to calling these shorts "Princies" which he and my younger brother found amusing.

The Prince of Wales

This check pattern was made popular by the Prince of Wales (future Edward VII in the late 19th century. As HBC point out, Bertie as he was called in the family had a major impact on both both boys' and mens' clothing. It became a standard for hunting and outings in the country by the Victorian elite. Sherlock Holmes was often portrayed in a cape and deerstalker hat in this pattern.

Belt

The other interesting point for me was the seperate belt.My check shorts also came with it's own belt (cheap plastic as I remember) which was in contrast to my school shorts at the time that had ribbed elastic at the back and no belt loops. That was yet another hassle for me with those shorts as the belt never seemed to be “just right” - one notch was too loose,the next too tight,and one other thing my mum had to get in order (along with the tie, socks and hair) before I was presented to my Grandmother which was another bone of contention between us on those trips. At least the elastic-backed waist on the school shorts did away with that problem – as did the snake belts (which were elastic) on my old school shorts, which did have belt loops. I never remember having shorts with an integral belt like some of those shown on your French pages but I can't say they didn't exist in England.

My Brothers

My elder brother had a much more acceptable blue suit with long, slightly flared trousers at this time and my younger brother wore his grey school shorts and they started ribbing me before we even left the house.

Trips to Yorkshire

We travelled by train or coach and this involved a walk to the local station to catch the tube to Kings cross main line station or Victoria coach station. Every step of the way I was acutely consious of those damned shorts and felt relief only when my grandfather met us in his car at Leeds station and whisked me out of the sight of other boys. On these visits we always wore fairly smart clothes - no jeans.

Regular Clothes

So after making the initial impression on my grandmother I was allowed to wear my school shorts for visiting other relatives in the area or cotton/corduroy shorts to play in if it was Summer. One Christmas my grandparents gave me a sheepskin coat - which added to my woes the following year as it didn't cover up the "princies" as my school duffle coat would have. .

Cousin Robert

My cousin Robert also lived in Yorkshire. He was close to my age and we plaed together when we visited our grandparents. Robertv wore "better cut" clothes than ours. Perhaps because he lived closer, gran bought a lot of his clothes.

French Catalogue

In reading HBC I found an image thst looks rather like the Prince of Wales check shorts I had to wear. The shorts the boy on the right (style H) is wearing are very similar to the check shorts that I had to wear to visit my Grandparents. Not only that the French description on this page specifically mentions “Prince of Wales Check” material (“tissu pays de gaulle”). I find this very interesting as you date the catalogue from 1971 in France yet I was wearing those shorts a couple of years earlier in England and I'm sure they were made in Yorkshire. As I said mine were of a grey/green/white/black check and my cousin, who was from Yorkshire, had a similar pair in brown/black/white check. It would be interesting to know if this Prince of Wales check pattern was a recent export across the channel or had been in vogue for some time.

Christmas Outfits with White Knee Socks

I specifically remember my cousin an myself being dressed up in those shorts one Christmas. It was a family get toogether on Christmas Day at my Grandparents. People commenting on the fact that we had matching shorts as they really stood out. My Grandmother had bought me a red bowtie and pullover with white socks to look “Christmassy”. All this I could tolerate--with rhe exception of the white knee socks. White socks to an English boy, especially white knee socks, is a completely different thing to French boys like I have seen in photograohs and catalogs. Thecsame I think was trie of Germany. As I'm sure any red-blooded English boy would tell you, white knee socks are for girls. You never see English school boys in paeticular wearing white knee socks. They are, however, commonly worn by girl. Even today, white kneesocks are rarely worn by boys. White socks were thus no-no for boys - but little boys sometimes wore short ones and I once had to wear long ones due to my Grandmother. (It was Christmas so that was probably her idea of making me look "angelic"!).

Terminology

as a young boy I remember being confused by all the different terms for clothing when we went up to Yorkshire to vist our grandparents. It was like having to learn three languages when we went up to Yorkshire: London English,Yorkshire English and Scottish. My mum still used some of these terms – like pumps for plimpsoles and my mates would laugh at me for it – but not in front of her. So I'd have to defend her to them then ask her to speak “proper English” when I got home which she always found amusing. Then she'd put on a real Yorkshire accent like her mum had and call me a “Tyke” and get me laughing in spite of myself.

Bill