Figure 1.-- This 1906 postcard back portarit shows a boy wearing a school cap (notice the shield), Eton collar, and Norfolk suit with knickers. Notice the shooting rifle, not a school activity. What we are not sure about is if his suit is a school uniform or a regular suit worn with the boy's school cap. Given that it is a Norfolk suit, we are inclined tobelieve that it is a regular suit, but we are not sure about this. We do not know what school he attended, but the post card was mailed from Hertford on September 22, 1906. This would have been the beginning of the school year. The boy's name was Willie, but we do not have hia family name.

School caps were once a familiar sight in England (and the rest of Britain). Their heyday was in the first half or so of the 20th century. These caps in a wide variety of colors and designs through the 1950s were a common sight on British streets as the boys went to and from school. Nowadays the traditional school cap is seen far less often. During the 1960s many schools where they had previously been compulsory now made them optional. Where this happened, and at schools where they had never been compulsory, boys came to wear them less and less, to the point where so few were being purchased by parents that school outfitters no longer considered it worthwhile to stock them and they disappeared altogether. A small number of schools, mostly independent and mostly for younger boys (preparatory schools in the British sense of the term), have gone against this general trend and still require pupils to wear them. A HBC reader reports, "I visited England this October, 2002 and saw a store in a South London suburb which carried school uniforms. I went into the store to look around and was told by the sales lady that there were still quite a few prep schools requiring traditional caps with their uniforms. They were on display in the window. Most of the caps matched the blazers. The average cost of the caps was 15 Pounds Sterling. Secondary schools no longer have these caps, but quite a few prep schools still do." A Canadian reader tells us, "I visited England in 2002 and had a look around a school uniform shop in South London and there were uniforms from various private schools on sale there. They all included the traditional English peaked cap with the school crest on the front. So, many British private schools still have them. The caps were quite expensive, as were the uniforms." HBC believes that in the 2000s caps were mostly worn at pre-prep schools. They were also worn for cricket and school colors at some schools bu older boys.

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Created: 11:36 PM 9/8/2019
Last updated: 11:36 PM 9/8/2019