Figure 1.--Not all page boys wore pillbox caps. This photo postacrd was dated 1912. It was taken in Bexhill on Sea near Eastbourne, Sussex which is a beach resort south of London on the English Channel. The cap logo looks like the Sheraton Hotel logo. The Sheraton is an American hotel chain. |
Hotel pageboys often wore very destinctive uniforms. This was especially true of the boys working for prestigious, posh hotels or the major ocean liners. The classic design of uniform, was based on late-Victorian British military uniform. We suspect that it was adopted by hotels after being adopted by the Boys' Brigade in 1884, but we can not yet confirm this. The most notable feature of the classic pageboy uniform was the pillbox cap (figure 1). The cap was often worn at a rakish angle and held on with a chin strap. The rest of the uniform varried, but commonly had military styling. This outfit was adopted all over the world, especially in the United States and is still seen today in especially posh hotels. I believe it was a standard throughout Europe. The pillbox cap was not the only cap worn, but it was very common. I do not know if there were any destinctive national styles. Americans of an earlier generation will recall a hotel page in early 1950s TV who was calling Philip Morris, a brand of cigarettes. The same military uniform, or at least the pillbox cap, was also adopted by the Boy's Brigade for their uniform and like hotel pages worn for decades after it was discarded by the army. Hotel pages, unlike the Boys' Brigade members, always wore long pants uniforms.
In the case of the portrait here, the boy's name was L. Harmer. The phototgraph was taken on June 29, 1912 at Bexhill on Sea, near Eastbourne, Sussex which is a beach resort south of London on the English Channel. The cap logo looks like the Sheraton Hotel logo. The Sheraton is an American hotel chain. He looks to be about 12-13 years old which means tghat he was probably enducted into the army in the final years of World War I.
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