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It has long been an open secret that the School authorities are planning a change in the traditional " walking-out dress " of the boys. The khaki tunic with brass buttons and hook-up neck is to be replaced, almost certainly, by a kilt jacket, to be worn with the present kilt and stockings, and with a white shirt and a tie. The glengarry is to stay, for wear with the new walking-out dress on appropriate occasions. If this change goes through as planned, there may be some murmurs, and some regret that the form of uniform which has distinguished our boys for so many generations is to be abolished and to be replaced by a dress that is not distinctively of the Army. But most people will agree that the change is due. The Q.V.S. khaki tunic belongs to the Army's past. It is not, on many of it wearers, particularly smart, and the temptation for them to unbutton
when they are out of sight of School staff is not always resisted. For growing necks, the hook-up collar is often uncomfortable, and frequent tailoring and exchanges are needed if the fastening is to meet without half-choking the wearer. The question of buttons that need polishing, with care to keep stains off the cloth, is a perilous one. Is it good for a boy to have to take this trouble to keep himself looking smart and soldierly when he goes out? Or is this just a tiresome failure to make use of modem materials and to eliminate unecessary toil ? We are not going to debate the question.
For ceremonial occasions the scarlet tunic will continue to be the School wear, and nobody would suggest that it ought to be changed. This is the uniform in which the boys look best, and one which is still worn with pride. True it also gives problems round the neck, and on growing schoolboys an immaculate fit is hardly to be expected. But nobody expects ceremonial clothes to be completely comfortable, and everybody is willing to sacrifice comfort to appearance when the occasion demands it. Over the past ten years or so there have been some
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problems also with the clothes that boys have for ordinary wear about the school. In 1956 the blue woollen jersey was still being worn by many boys while stocks of these ran down. It was serviceable enough, but by that time was old-fashioned and had an institutional look. It was gradually replaced by an open-necked blouse of the wind-cheater type
made of soft material, and the shorts worn with it were also of a flannel-type material. These blouses turned out to be unsatisfactory. They lost their shape and went into holes, so that it was difficult for an ordinary energetic boy to avoid looking ragged. The trousers went into holes too, and the rate of repair could not always keep up with the demand, or perhaps it was just that a custom had established itself. Anyway it was not uncommon to see a boy going about with a pair of gym shorts worn over his ordinary shorts to conceal a hole in the seat. So these garments were quickly abolished and replaced by the present corduroy blouse and shorts. With them the problem is round the waist. The strip and buckle which secure the waist are not equal to the energetic tugging that they get, but otherwise these are very serviceable clothes for younger boys. The senior boys are wearing corduroy blouse and trews if they are in the fourth form, or, while still below the fourth, are so big that they are given trews instead of shorts ; and the fifth and sixth form boys are wearing the trews along with battle-dress blouse and khaki collar and tie. This uniform is also worn by boys below the fifth year who are prefects.
These details about School dress may be of interest to some old boys. There are strong feelings about clothes, as there are about haircuts ; and there are marginal areas, like the matter of the " plain clothes " in which monitors and prefects have for some years been privileged to walk out, and the pattern and colour of the supplementary garments, mainly for games wear, that boys can have at school. We had better not start discussing these.
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