English Wolf Cub Uniforms: Chronology--the 1990s


Figure 1.--Major changes occurred with the Cub Scout uniform during the 1990s. The cap disappeated. Girls brought skirs. Short trousers were made optional, but some packs continued to require them. Jogging pants appeared.

Major changes were made in the Cub uniform in the 1990s. The Cub Scout uniform has been steadily made less traditional in the 1990s. The arrival of girls brought the adition of grey skirts. Other wise the girls wore the same uniform. Cubs also discontinued the traditional pealed cap. Short trousers wre mde optional. As a result of the uniform changes in the 1990s there was in practice been confusion and great diversity of uniforms, as well as lack of uniforms among English Cubs. This wasmore so in ythe 1990s than perhaps any period of English Cun Scouting. The Scout Association has attempted to define the uniform. The Cub Scout Handbook stated, "Your uniform tells everyone that you are a Cub Scout and to which Pack you belong. The Uniform is a dark green, long sleeved sweatshirt or T shirt, plus the items you are given at your Investiture. Your Akela will tell you the type of trousers, or skirts for girls, that are uniform in your Pack. If you wear shorts for Cubs, you also wear long grey socks with green garter tabs to keep them up."

Uniform Changes

Major changes were made in the Cub uniform in the 1990s. The Cub Scout uniform has been steadily made less traditional in the 1990s. The arrival of girls brought the adition of grey skirts. Other wise the girls wore the same uniform. Cubs also discontinued the traditional pealed cap. Short trousers wre mde optional.

Caps

The traditoinal peaked cap had for nearly a century been the symbol of British Cub Scouting. The cap was based on a popular school cao style. The scgool cap began disapperating in the 1950s, excpt as more traditional preparaory schools. British Cubs in the 1990s finally abandoned the Cub cap. For some reason, Scout officials did not want to mak the cap optional. here were thus strenuous efforts to ensure that all groups complied. Some boys still wore them at first, but by the mid-90s, the traditionl cap was rarely seen.

Jogging pants

Green jogging pants were introduced as an alternative to long or short grey rousers. In some cases the jogging pants were used as aind of activity uniform. Notice the grey jogging suit that Cubs in the rear of the procession shown here are wearing (figure 1).

Jersey

Brotish Cubs traditionally wore dark green wool jerseys or sweaters. There was no Cub shirt. The green jersey was won over what ever shirt the boy wanted to wear. The boy's badges were sewn on his jersey. The Cub wool jersey in the 1990s was replaced with a very similar, but less expensive and much more practical) sweatshirt.

Skirts

With girls allowed to become cubs in the 1990s, suitable alternatives such as skirts for the girls were introduced. The girls were not given a choice here, but had to wear skirts and not shorts or long trousers. Currenly there is a debate raginbg in Englnd as to weather girls should be given the optional choice of trousers in school. The case is being taken tothe European Court of Human Rights. Presumbably Englih girl Cubs will someday wear trousers as well. Note that the Brownies were not merged with the Cubs, only girls were were allowed to join the formerly all boy Cubs.

Trousers

The Scout Association stopped requiring Cubs to wear short tousers. Shorts were continued shorts as an option, in part concerned about defections from more traditional Scouters working with Cubs. Here individual units varies. Some Cub packs in the early 1990s maintained a requirement for short trousers, but this had becomne less common by the end of the decade. Scouting shops still sold shorts, long socks and garter tabs.

Diversity

As a result of the uniform changes in the 1990s there was in practice been confusion and great diversity of uniforms, as well as lack of uniforms among English Cubs. This wasmore so in ythe 1990s than perhaps any period of English Cun Scouting.

Official Regulations

The Scout Association has attempted to define the uniform. The Cub Scout Handbook stated:

Your uniform tells everyone that you are a Cub Scout and to which Pack you belong. The Uniform is a dark green, long sleeved sweatshirt or T shirt, plus the items you are given at your Investiture. Your Akela will tell you the type of trousers, or skirts for girls, that are uniform in your Pack. If you wear shorts for Cubs, you also wear long grey socks with green garter tabs to keep them up.

Other scouting documents confuse the issue, variously stating that the cub, the cub's parents or the cub scout leader can decide what is uniform. At events where several packs are present, there is an amazing variety of uniform, ranging from the perfect traditional uniform to virtually none whatsoever. Perhaps one in 10 packs or less still dress in traditional cub uniform, and this is usually worn smartly and correctly as the same attention is paid to it as ever; another quarter might wear long or short grey trousers; the majority have an 'anything goes' policy, often including jeans, trainers and recently camouflage army trousers.

Reader Comments

Cub uniform seems to have followed the trend whereby children tell their parents what they can wear rather than vice-versa. A curious result of this is that in an organisation which started off with military links, the children can look more and more like boy soldiers, with their camo pants and jackets, and certainly less like the innocent cub scout of old.

A English Scouter reports that in the 1990s only the cub scouts wear shorts on a regular basis to meetings and the uniform hasn't changed greatly since the 1960's except that the shorts are generally shorter and less baggy and they often wear trainers instead of normal shoes which are more practical when it comes to games during the meetings.

Another English Scouter reports that in the 1990s it is more and more unusual to see Cub Scouts wearing their traditional full uniform of grey shorts, long grey socks and green garter tabs with their green pullover and colored scarf.

Cub caps were abandoned a few years ago, and although the full uniform is still sold by Scout shops, shorts, socks and garter tabs are no longer manditory uniform requirements. The exact uniform choice is left up to individual Cub packs and perhaps 1 in 10 packs still wear the traditional uniform. There were few changes in the Cub until the early 80s when the green wool jerseys was replaced with a green sweatshirt the cap was no longer required. The Cubs were also allowed to wear jogging bottoms.








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Created: October 15, 2003
Last updated: October 15, 2003