Figure 1.--This Riga boy wears the official uniform some time in the 1930s. The uniform was similar to the original British Scout uniform. Note the sandals. British Cubs wore sabdals, but the Scouts generally wore more substantial footwear.

Latvian Scouts wore hats, shirts, neckerchiefs, and pants similar to the original British Scout uniform. This was essentially a military styled outfit. The official hat was the Baden-Powell lemon-squeezer hat. The long sleeve shirts had large breast pockets. The pants were mostly short pants. The one unusual rather unusuaal aspect of the photographs we have seen is that quite a few boys wear long over the knee stockings rather than knee socks which were much more common for Scouting. This is something you rarely see with Scouts, but presumably relates to the northerly lattitude and the fact that long stockings were very commonly worn by Latvian children. We have noted Scouts wearing long pants, short pants and knee socks, or short pants and short socks, but rarely the long over the knee stockings. Long stockings were extensively worn by German, Polish, and Scandinavian boys so it is likely that some Scouts did wear them. We also notice Latvian Scouts wearing an unusual cap (figure 1), but thisi probably just because he did not have the proper uniform hat. Other wise the uniform seems quite standard for the time. The portrait here is undated, but must have been taken in the 1930s before the Soviet invasion. Also notice the boy's knife. Scout knivers were very important to early Scouts.