Figure 1.--British boys went everywhere on their bicycles during the 1940s. There wasn't much traffic during the War years, except perhaps beginning in 1942 with the odd American tank. This boy in a country village during World War II looks like he is coming home from school.

British boys continued wearing short pants during and after World War II (1939-45). A British reader writes, "I came across your essay page on "Short Pants" . I don't know if this is true but I remember my grandfather telling me (during a discussion about my clothes in the 1970s) that during World War II manufacturers were not allowed to make long trousers in boys' sizes and this continued until the end of rationing. He said it was because of the shortage of material. He claimed that the same should be true then to stop my arguing ..... Anyway - this could account for boys stiil wearing shorts in Europe in the 1950's and by then it had become the accepted tradition that boys wore shorts--at least until a certain age." This may well be the case in Britain and other combatant nations. It is possible there was no prohibition, but rather production suggestions. We have noticed a variety of cryptic references in various history books, but do not yet have details as to the precise nature of war-time rationing. We do not, hpwever, notice a major difference between the pre-War 1930s bd the 1940s rationing era. British school boys commonly wore short pants and kneesocks as well as traditional peaked school cpas. Wrearing short pants suits to school was common. The boy here in an English village looks like he is coming home from school (figure 1).

Created: December 13, 2003
Last updated: 8:49 AM 8/6/2018