I am 35 years old and went to three schools in the south in England during my childhood.
I was at an all boys private infants school (part of larger prep school). We wore black shoes, long grey socks with blue tops, grey corduroy shorts, grey
shirt, blue jumper, navy blazer and navy cap. I have some old photographs. of me going off for my first day so I can be quite detailed even though it was a long time ago. I can't remember much about how I felt wearing it etc. but I do remember feeling very smart. I can remember having awful trouble doing my tie and having to ask for help from a teacher after Games etc. to put it back on.
We moved out to Surrey when my father got a new job and my brother and I were sent as day boys to a traditional prep school in a nearby town. As I was older I can remember much more about it and the various items that we wore.
Black lace up in the winter and brown sandals in the summer. I don't remember wearing the sandals but a quick check of an old school photo shows most boys wearing sandals and a few still in black ones.
Long grey but without coloured tops. The tops turned over and I used garters to keep them up. I can remember using some black elastic which my mother must have sown together and also some grey purpose made ones with a small buckle on them. Later once I wore long trousers (see below) it was just grey ankle socks.
White vest and underpants although coloured ones where becoming very popular at this time in the UK. I can remember making sure that I only wore white
ones to school on PE days as I found the coloured or patterned ones embarrassing. A few years later at my next school the situation was quite the reverse and I gave up wearing white underpants after being teased in the changing rooms one day.
The school rule was simple. Up until your eleventh birthday you wore shorts and after that longs. I was always young in my year and my birthday was not
until after we had broken up for the summer and I was one of last in my class still to be wearing short trousers but I don't remember being put out
or upset it was just the way it was. The shorts were grey, short cut and I guess made of a polyester/wool mix. I have no memory of going to buy them so
I don't know what make they were or any more details about them. As you pointed out they were almost certainly lined and had no back pocket. You
mentioned that it was shorts that had no back pocket and longs did. This not quite correct as I can remember having long trousers with no back pockets
for years until I was about 15. They are still around today in fact. I have a very clear memory of my first long school trousers. My father who was
trying to be helpful thought he should buy my first longs and came home one day during the Holiday with a pair of grey trousers. All the boys seemed to
wear black and I kicked up a real fuss and my Mum had to go back and change them.
Standard white school shirt in winter and a grey short sleeve aertex shirt
in the summer.
Bright red with silver striped diagonals on it. I still have one today with
my name in it.
This was bright red with grey trim (collar, breast pocket etc) and caused real grief with my mother and quite a lot of other parents most of whom like
mine were not rich. I can remember my mother complaining in the shop and at the school that it was far and away the most expensive blazer in the shop. We grew out of them quite quickly and after much bullying the school agreed to set up a second hand shop.
Same as the blazer, bright red with a grey panel at the front and the school crest on it. I wore this up until I left and I think they stopped wearing
them shortly afterwards so your date on caps are probably about right. Friends of mine who went to the local comp. which I was soon to join thought
it was most amusing and I was teased about it regularly. I still have the cap I had when I left and strangely it still fits.
I still live in the same area and often see pupils from the school, the uniform is the same but if course no caps and no shorts.
I went to the local comprehensive after my folks decided they could not afford to put me through public school. The uniform was fairly normal for state run
comp. With a black blazer, grey trousers, still no back pocket, Marks and Spencer trousers in those days just did'nt have them and I can remember seeing other boys who did have a back pocket and I managed to persuade my
mother to but another make when I was older so that I could have one to. The tie was green and silver and we wore a grey jumper with a black one in the final year.
Some other personal experiences include:
Austrlalia
The 1960s
The 1970s
England:
The 1940s
The 1950s
The 1970s
Ireland:
The 1980s
New Zealand:
Various
The 1990s
Norway:
The 1950s
Scotland:
The 1960s
The 1980s (An American boy)
United States:
The 1940s
The 1940s
The 1940s
The 1940s-50s
The 1950s
The 1960s