Figure 1.--Class portraits because the children are about the same age. Here we see and unidentified Plymouth school portrait we believe in the 1900s decades. The boys look to be about 10 years old. Most wear collar buttoning suit jackets, most with Eton collars. One boy wears a sailor suit. The studio was William C. Holden in Plymouth.

School boys in theearly 19th century wore long pants. This would have included skeletin suits and tunic outfits. By mid century boys were wearing suits, still with long pants. It is at this time that photography was develped and we begin to have increasing numbers of images. Boys commonly wore suits to school. We see boys wearing collar-buttoning and cut--away jacket suits, mostly with long pants. Gradually we see 10 year olds beginning to wear shortened-length pants in the 1870s as Britain began to develop a major state education sysrem. Uniforms were common in provare schools, but not worn in stte primaries. By the 1880s shortened-lenhth pants were very common for 10-year olds worn with long stockings. This included both knee pants and knickers. We also see a lot of 10 year olds with Eton collars. A few boys wore sailor suits, but they were not nearly as common as on the Continent. Lapel jackets become increasingly common, but we contiunue to see lapel jackets. Shortened -length pants were nearly universal by the end of the century. At the turn-of-the 20th century we mostly see 10-year olds wearing knee pants suits to scchool. School caps became common. Knee socks begin to replace long-stockings. In the intr-war period boys continued wearing short pants suits to school. Sandals weew also common. Blazers were common. Short pants and knees socks were virtually universal. Webegin to see uniforms at stte primaries in the 60s. We begin to see more boys earing long pants andn casual clthing by the 70s. We begin to see casual uniforms appearing by the 1980s. Many private schools continued to wear more formal unirms, but schools caps were vno longer common.

Created: 2:59 PM 1/10/20203
Last updated: 2:59 PM 1/10/2020