Figure 1.--Boys had many different opinions about the kilt. This Scottish boy in the 1980s didn't mind. Often non-Scottish boys attending Scottish schools didn't like the idea.
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Figure 1.--Boys had many different opinions about the kilt. This Scottish boy in the 1980s didn't mind. Often non-Scottish boys attending Scottish schools didn't like the idea. |
Various Scotts remember their younger days when they wore kilts as boys. Our HBC contributor has collected personal accounts dating back ti the 1920s. For the most part these accounts deal with school and Scouts, but some boys especially in the early part of the century wore the kilt for every day wear.
I was born in 1923 and got my first kilt when I was 5, This one lasted to the age of 10. In winter, I always wore it with a jersey buttoned at the neck and in summer with a pullover, white shirt, and tartan tie. In both summer and winter I had stockings with a good turnover, flashes, sporran, and Balmoral with clan badge. Very few boys around that age had a Balmoral or Glengarry. They'd either wear a school cap, beret or go without any headgear at all. Also around 25% wouldn't wear a sporran. When I was 10 I got a tweed jacket and waistcoat. I remember the jacket was exactly the same as I wear still, gauntlet cuffs, shoulder straps, button fastening. In fact the only difference was that the first waistcoat had only a tie tape at the back as opposed to my belt with adjustbale buckle now.
I outgrew my first kilt when I was 12 and my second kilt at age 16. The outfit I got at 16 still lasted until clothes rationing ended around 1950. The kilt outfit I got then I still have. After I got my kilt jacket I never wore the kilt with jersey or pullover again. In summer it would be kilt and white shirt with or without tartan tie.
Not many boys wore the kilt. Those who did were like me, only wearing it on Sundays, at parties etc. In fact in place of a good suit which I never had. I rarely wore my kilt to school. I did wear it on Class Photo Day which was the same for all the other "kiltie" boys of whom in a class of say 20 boys only 3 at most would possess a kilt. [HBC note: Presumaly this boy went to a state school.] In those days all schoolgirls wore gym dress to school. A great many girls on special occasiions or Sunday would wear a kilt, rather than there everyday gym dress. They never wore a sporran with their kilt, but would commonly wear a beret. They would also often wear their kilts on the day the school photo was taken.
Mother was a great knitter and hand knitted all our kilt stockings. She got a pattern leaflet from the Sunday Post to do the turn over in a design similar to kilt pattern (set is the correct term) and colours. I would say 95% of stockings worn now and for the last 20 years are all white. Other 5% self coloured, mostly lovat and fawn or white with turn-over with design knitted in.
Before World War II, tailored kilts were usually supplied with a pair of matching tartan undershorts, often wrongly called Trews. These are what I got with my first kilts. Apart from the difficulty I had as a wee boy had doing up the fly buttons they were made of the same heavy weight of tartan as the kilt and weren't very comfortable. I soon grew out of them as kilts can be let out more than shorts. At one time mother got some long knickers for me to wear and later she knitted some special kilt pants. I don't think many other boys wore these.
I was at school in central Perthshire from 1914 to 1923 when it was quite usual for some boys to wear kilts as normal school wear. This school was what was called an 'Academy' and there were other similar schools in Scotland. It was uncommon to see a kilt at any 'council' school. But in fact, even at the Academy, the majority of boys wore shorts and the upper 2 or 3 forms long trousers. Probably only 1 boy out of 4 or 5 habitually wore the kilt; usually the tartan of their names. Those without any definite clan association wore kilts of plain grey or any tartan that they liked or could get. With the kilt we wore a tweed kilt jacket or a jersey but very rarely any hat or cap. We usually wore a plain sporran, on strap or chain, often pushed round to the side for convenience. On Sundays everyone wore their "best" kilt with the short kilt jacket and Glengarry or Tam o'Shanter. I very occassionally saw a boy with a Plaid on his left shoulder. Some had plain kilt pins but on Sundays and special occassions the kilt pin was usually a grouse claw. Stockings were of a plain colour to below the knee, secured with a length of braid and sometimes a red flash hanging below the turned over top. Most boys kept their pencil in their stocking top where the Skean Dhu is supposed to have been carried. Black shoes or boots completed the outfit. The Cadet OTC wore kilts of (I think) Morisson tartan. We were connected to the Black Watch whose tartan was only worn by the officers.
Thinking back to those times I can say that we who habitually wore kilts found them warm and comfortable but I suppose that we never gave our clothes much thought. I did hear that those who wore their kilts only on Sunday sometimes found them a bit draughty in winter.
When a new kilt was bought it was usually supplied with one or more pairs of undertrews in the same colours; otherwise one wore shortened football shorts, or in our case rugger shorts. Remember that the games shorts of those days came down almost to the knee so they had to be shortened to mid or three-quarter thigh length, the same length as the tartan undertrews. If they had been available in those days we'd probably also have used dark coloured Y-fronts or similar for summer wear. Out of school, some people went traditional and wore nothing under their kilts, but I stuck to my rugger shorts in summer and the trews in winter. When we went to summer camp with the territorials (I was in the OTC) I found that the "proper" soldiers wore nothing under. I did try but it felt uncomfortable.
I was talking to a man the other day about this. He was born in 1921 so that makes him 71 now. A very active 71, I must say. He started wearing kilts at the age of 5. He confirmed that new kilts in those days came with a pair of matching tartan undertrews whether you asked for them or not. His mother used to lay out the trews with the rest of his kiltie clothes. Then he went to the scouts. He was dying to join and he specially chose a group which always wore the kilt. He was about 12 or 13 at the time and that was the very earliest that the scouts would take him. That first evening he went there proudly wearing his kilt with the trews underneath. The other boys laughed at him for wearing trews. They were unceremoniously taken off there and then. That must have been 1933, or 34, he couldn't remember. And no indication that they were any different before that. He said that the scout camps were great fun.
My first kilt was of the Hunting Menzies tartan, bought, presumably because my mother liked the tartan. At that age the kilt was attached to a bodice to carry the weight, because wee boys had "nae bum" to hold it up. Pobably by the time I got my next kilt, about 3 years later, I had developed enough to graduate to a waist belt.
In respect of my bodiced kilts, and I may even have had two bodiced kilts, the shirt was, if my memory serves me well, very much in the style of the last war's batteledress jacket at the waist but with an ordinary looking collar. They were proabably tailored for the job and not at all like a girl's blouse. Had they been, that would probably have scunnered me (an old Scot's word) from ever wearing the kilt again.
I wore the kilt from about the age of 7 prior to World War II and during it every schoolday. In those days, the regulations attached to wearing of the kilt were quite strict. A stiff collar [HBC note: presumably this means Eton collar] was mandatory, together with a tweed waistcoat to match the jacket. The waistcoat, incidentally, was buttoned right up to the neck leaving only the knot of the tie showing. As well as top hose in a hue to match either kilt or jacket, the wearing of, or in summer, the carrying of, brown leather gloves was a necessity, particularly on Sundays.
I had some problems at primary school. Not because the point was did I or did I not wear trews but at that time I was a 'one off' in that no other boy wore the kilt. Fortunately at that age I was stocky in build and a bonnie fighter so after a few playtime bouts I was left alone and gradually a number of others appeared in the kilt. By secondary school it was fully accepted and in fact one of our history teachers always wore the kilt to school. I would imagine that in the secondary there would be somewhare around 300-400 boys, and perhaps a third of them wore the kilt.
I do remember quite distinctly having a pair of 'trews' of Hunting Menzies tartan with that first kilt but whether they were supplied by the kiltmaker or made at home (both my mother and one of her sisters were bespoke tailoresses) I can't remember. They resembled a pair of shorts in every respect except that they were tartan. Today a pair of black swimming trunks is an unobtrusive undergarment.
I usually wore my kilt to school in the spring and autumn terms. For other terms I had heavy navy blue lined shorts in winter and lightweight ones in summer. There were about 7 or 8 of us who wore kilts to school. At the weekend more donned the kilt to go to church etc and it was almost obligatory as a Scout uniform.
Under the kilt were either "Cherub Chilproof" drawers which sometimes had a button fly and, as I remember in warm weather, could be quite itchy, or green locknit pants, plain front, with elasticated waist and ribbing round the leg openings.
I can only remember button fly trews coming with one kilt. I am afraid that it proved too much of a struggle for a little boy to undo and fasten all these buttons, especially when wearing a bodice kilt which also buttoned.
At school, gales of laughter would greet the sight of trunks or the locknit pants which mothers deemed necessary. Gym shorts were the order of the day at the Scouts but on the way home games of 'dare the Devil' would take over and you were chicken if you didn't take part.
This brings me to the subject of shirts. In winter the shirt was worn under the bodice as a jumper or waistcoat covered the bodice. During the summer it was a different matter. I can remember going to Paisley's in Glasgow for 'kilt shirts' which were blouses with an elastic waist but they buttoned on the boy's side. Later, an old-fashioned draper, more locally, sold the same thing. On occasion my mother would put elsastic round my waist then tuck the shirt tails up under this.
I must have been in the early 195O's when I was sent, at the age of 8, to a boys prep school near Aberdeen. I stayed there until I was 13. There were about 140 boys in the School in large grounds and a big house (at least to my eyes it was big). Obviously school uniform was a must. During the school week our standard uniform was a blue blazer with gold edging, school cap in same colours with a centre red ring, white shirt and gold, red, blue stripped tie, grey shorts, grey stockings with turn-over top navy blue these tops. However, on Sunday and Saturday we all wore the kilt. No belt, it just hung by the buckles, and a sporran was worn only when we went to church.
When I went up to Belmair Academy at 13, things were different. The rule was to wear the kilt all the time, with a shirt and pullover, no sporran (this was intended to ensure you had no items on your person), red stockings with garters, black shoes. On Sunday white shirt, school tie and lovat jacket was our additional dress. Church was attended on Sunday but we had the Sunday afternoon free, Saturday afternoon was rugby either playing or watching. With wearing the Kilt as everyday dress I got very used to wearing it and none of us complained. The kilt had some very good points, warm, complete freedom of movement etc.
For underwear, both at Prep and the Academy it was the practice to wear a white singlet, sleeveless, and bottle green or navy blue knickers. These were commonly referred to as 'bloomers' or 'knicks' by us all. Convention called for the singlet to be tucked well down inside the knickers and the knickers pulled well up. They had tight elastic at waist and at each leg, no front opening of course, but rather large gussets at back and front made them quite roomy. These green and navy blue knickers were on the school uniform list and we had to wear them all the time. In some instances I wore a white blouse, elastic at waist which fitted snugly into the waist elastic of my knickers. My singlets and knickers were clean and ironed ready to put on after a bath or rising, or packed for School and it just seemed so normal for me.
I don't know why I had a mixture of both green and navy blue knicks for schoolwear, they were cotton, but I also wore white silk knickers at week-ends and holidays under an old and usually short play kilt, not my normal school kilt. I was not allowed trousers and the play kilt was very short. I wore it with short white ankle socks. My first pair of long trousers was at 16.
Wearing a kilt without a sporran was no problem. My hankie was tucked under one leg of my knickers and for the other items we had a satchel of sorts. Our stockings were bright red but when not at school I also wore green (dark) or navy blue knee length stockings with two yellow rings at the turnover.
