Figure 1.--The initial Cub uniform pants in the 1930s wore blue knickers matching the blue shirt. This went along with the Scout uniform at the time. The knickers were worn with blue kneesocks with gold bands.Here we see a snapshot of a Cub Scout in the early 1940s based upon the car on the left.

The initial Cub uniform pants in the 1930s wore blue knickers matching the blue shirt. This went along with the Scout uniform at the time. The knickers were worn with blue kneesocks with gold bands. These knickers were worn throughout the 1930s and into the early 40s. Scouts at the time wore knicker-like breeches. Knickers in the earky 30s were still widely worn by American boys, but by the late 1930s were rapidly going out of style. We still see them in the early 40s, but knickers very rapidly disappeared during World War II. I am not entirely sure why. I think Government efforts to reduce unecessary fabric usage during World War II was a factor in the demise of knickers, but they were already going out of fashion. The BSA following fashion trends discontinued knickers as prt of the Cub uniform in 1943. Thriugh this time the only unifirm pants avail for Cubs were knickers. Here we see a snapshot of a Cub Scout in the early 1940s based upon the car on the left. A reader writes, "Note that the Cub is wearing a putee style of knickers rather than the elastic cuff knickers shown in other photographs." We think Mom may have purchased a size to grow into making the knickers look very full. He is a brand new Scout, probably 8 years old. He has his bobcat pin over his left pocket and already has his city and den patches sewn on. There are two non-regulation details. He is saluting palm outward which is British, and has the ends of his neckerchief tucked into his shirt like the British Army of this period. He definitely looks very serious about Cubbing and had taken great care with his appearance and is dressed very neatly for an 8-year old.