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We have found images of English schools that we have been unable to identify. Often we can date these images, but in using the information it is helful to know the type of school or the actual name of the school. Hopefully our British readers will be able to provide information or insights about these different schools. We can tell a little avout the schools by the uniforms or other clothing the children or wearing. In other cases we see outfits that are less familar.
Here we see two boys, presumbly brothers. They look to be about 11-13 years old. Thy are dressed in what we take to be a military-style school uniform. Unlike America, military schools were not common in England. While uniforms were fairly standard in English private schools, military styles were not. The few we know of were charity schools. These boys do not look like they attended a charity school. They have matching kepis, military jackets, and a military-style belt abd buckle worn over the jacket. Something we might describe as a cadet uniform. The boys also wear knickers and knee socks which were common in private boarding schools at the time. All we know for sure is that the portrait was taken in Poplar near London. Of course tht my be where the school was located or where the boys lived. The style of the CDV portrait suggests the 1870s. The studio was W. Bartier in Poplar E'. We are not sure what the 'E' meant, perhaps East London.
This school photograph has us confused. The background suggests to us that it is a preparatory boarding school. Many of these schools were boarding schools established in rural manor schools. These could be the older form. They look about 3 years old. We would date this photograph to the late 1940s. This is in part because the boys are wearing kneedsocks with colored bands on the turn over tops. The fact that the girls are wearing long stockings suggests the 1930s to us. The problem we have with the image is that while it might be a prep school, most prep schools at this time were single gender schools. Perhaps they could be the junior students in a public (private secondary school), but again these were mostly single gender schools. A poosinility is a grammnar (selective secondary) school, but the background does not look like a grammar school to us. Hopefully our British readers can provide some insights to us. A Canadian reader writes, "I remember English-speaking girls wearing school uniforms like this when I was in school during the 1950s. This photograph reminds me of a English-speaking girl I met on the bus every day."
This school is identified as an F. R. school, but we do not know what that means (figure 1). It looks like an English school to us, although it could be Scottish. (These children all wear stripped ties. We note earlier images from the school with a lot of the pupils wearing plaid ties.) We is clearly a primary school, probably a state school, but we are not positive about that. It looks like a class portrait taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s. The bous and girls weae white shirts and ties. The girl wear skirts and white kneesocks. The boys wear shorts and grey kneesocks. The school clearly has a strict uniform policy.
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
