Figure 1.--This school photograph comes without any accompnying information. It is obviously English and almost certainly comes fom a British public (elite private boarding) school. We would date it to the 1900s. We are not sure what he group is, it is obviously not a class group because the boys are of different ages. We thus believe it is a boarding house group. What we are unsure about is that why the boys are wearing such varied headwear. We seeboth boaters and peaked caps. And the peaked caps are quited varied. At public schools boys the caps were of ten used to seignate sports or other honors. But here a younger boy has a ringed cap and some of the older boys plain caps. These caps originated in the public schools, but same to ne worn by virtually every English schoolboy and by the 20th entury has no class connotations. Click on the image for a larger view.

Social class in England as in most ountries has had a powerful impact in history and society. Class in Britain has perhaps had a more powerful impact thn in most countries because England has not undergone revolutionary change as in many other countrues (America, France, Germany, Russia, and other countries). The British class system is probably the nost studied in the world. It like that in the rest of Rurope was based or arustocracy and land ownership. It was somewht modified by the English Civil War when the yoemany dominated Parliament stood up to King Charles and roual absolutism. It was also affected by capitalism the Industrial Revolution. This underminded the economic power of the landed airistocracy resulting in a collision between the two during the Victorian era. The advent of democracy led to a struggle between the wealthy, middle class, and working class. The whole story has become even more complicated as the working class has merged with the middle class and Britons debate whether socialism which was once thought to the future is benefeficial or harmful to nation well being. Schools have played an important role in this whole process. Especially with the rise of capitalism and industry, education was the key to success. Yet England lagged behind two of its most important rivals (America and Germany) in building a free state education system. The landed airistocravy resisted. As a result private schools, namely the public (elite private boarding schools) dominated English education and strongly influenced the grammar schools and other schools in the 19th century. This included school uniform because it was mostly at the private schools that school uniform styles including headwear originated in the private schools. And the most important headwear item was the peaked cap. Ironically unlike America where the peaked cap camme to have an upper-class image. Iwas worn at virtually all schools, including schools that did not have uniforms. The peaked cap became a kind of national symbol of English boyhood. It was even worn by Our William--a cartoon charater familar to all English people. While originating in the private schools it was so widely adopted througout the private and state schools that it ceased to have any class connotations.