Figure 1.--Here we see an English Scout troop in the 1950s. The boys wear the khaki uniform. Notice the one boy wearing dark shorts and kneesocks. There were various color options in the 1950s and blue shorts and kneesocks were one of the options.

The English Cub uniform continued to be the green and gold peaked cap with an green jumper and grey shorts. The Scout uniform was the khaki short pants uniform with kneesocks and a beret. The turn-over top socks (kneesocks) were often worn with cplored tabs. (Cubs normally had green tabs and Scouts red tabs.) Available images suggest that most Scout units gave considerable attention to the uniform and correct wearing of the uniform. English Scouts in the 1950s wore a khaki uniform with matching shirt and short trousers along with khaki kneesocks. The beret was the standard headwear. The English Scout program in the 1950s continued the traditional outdoors camping and hiking activities with few changes. The boys on the previous page look to be involved in an orienteeering or map reading exercize. This was probably a staged photograph as their uniforms are a bit too perfect for an outing--especially the brightly shined shoes. Other photographs of English Scouts show similar if not quite so perfect uniforms. The image here is probably a better example of ordinary Scout uniform turn out in the 1950s. Often we see boys with different colored shorts or kneesocks in any given troop. Notice the boys here in dark (navy blue) shorts and kneesocks. We thought he might be involved in Sea Scouting. A British reader tells us, "In fact navy blue corduroy shorts were permitted uniform at the time for all scouts (not just sea scouts) and are listed in 'Scout Shop' clothing adverts alongside tan coloured corduroy shorts." A British Scouter tells us, "This picture is of a group of Senior Scouts (15-18 years old). They have their own proficiency badges which are maroon and square. They would wear maroon epaulettes and the garters in the socks would also be maroon. Hats could have been the traditional scout hat or a Maroon Beret. Regarding shirt colours until 1966 the shirt colour could be grey, green, blue or Khaki, it was up to the group to decide and all should wear the same colour. Shorts could be Khaki or Blue Sea scouts would normally wear a sea scout jersey--navy blue in colour with the words "SEA Scouts" in white across the chest." [Ford] As our reader tells us blue shorts were an option for Scouts. Normally decessions on these options would have been made by the group. We suspect that the senior Scout here wearing blue shorts may have been involved with a differebnt group earlier.

Sources

Ford, Peter. Scouting Past and Present Archives, E-mail message, May 31, 2005.