Figure 1.--Here we see the five O'Connor boys in 1960, although we are not positive that this the actual date or an estimate. It does look right for the late-1950s or early-60s. The boys look to be about 5-14 years old. They may attend the same school, but the wide age range suggests it may not be a school uniform. Mum may have just dressed all the boys alike. The younger boy is Peter O'Connor. His older brothers are Tony, Paul, John, and Daniel. We are not sure if they all went to the same school, are more likely mum just liked to dress then all alike. They all wear grey collared school shirts, horizontal striped ties, short pants, and knee socks.

Here we see the five O'Connor boys in 1960, although we are not positive that this the actual date or an estimate. It does look right for the late-1950s or early-60s. The boys look to be about 5-14 years old. They may attend the same school, but the wide age range suggests it may not be a school uniform. The name is Irish, which suggests the boys may be Catholic. And there were some Catholic acadenmies that did have wide age ranges. Not many schools had such wide age ranges. Mum may have just dressed all the boys alike. The younger boy is Peter O'Connor. His older brothers are Tony, Paul, John, and Daniel. We are not sure if they all went to the same school, are more likely mum just liked to dress then all alike. They all wear grey collared school shirts, horizontal striped ties, short pants, and knee socks. Many of these items were popular school garments. That does not mean they were necesarily wearing a school uniform, just garments commonly worn to school. The identical neckties, however do suggest that they attended the same school. Note that they are the horizonal stripe type. The grey shirts in particular were widely worn for school because they did not show dirt like a white shirt. Two of the boys wear the same school socks with the colored top band. The knee socks are the only differences we note with how the boys are dressed. The studio was Standish and Preece in Cambridge. A British reader provides a little infoormation on British cgools at the time. (We at first thought the portrait was Engklish.) "It is quite possible that they attended the same school. It could well be that it was a Catholic school the boys attended. And Catholic schools unlike the regular state primaries, commonly did have unifiorms. This was before the advent of the Compehensive seondary schools. The older boy suggests with the same outfit that he did not obtain the results on the 11-plus exam needed to attend the catholic grammar school. The boys would have progressed through the primary school and then attended the secondary modern school. The younger boys might have gone to Grammar if they did well on the 11+ exam. If they did not pass it then they would go to the secondary section of the school this would have been on the same site. However most boys would have been in long pants by age 14 years. The grammar school would have been in a different location with a different uniform." Another reader writes, "The boys could be attending a prep school. The oldest boy is in his teens. He could be in the last year of the prep department before moving to the senior school. This could be why he is still in short trousers. It may also be the reason for the photograph." Possibly. But prep schools generally begin at about age 8 years. There may have been a pre-prep, but this was less common in 1960. And pre-prep boys generally do not wear the prep uniform.

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Created: 8:41 PM 10/6/2023
Last edited: 2:22 AM 10/8/2023