Posted by John Wilson on November 13, 2003 at 22:30:09 from 202.154.157.117 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: Winter Holiday posted by Robert Dilley on November 13, 2003 at 19:16:30:
In the film “Swallows and Amazons” John & Roger wore light summer shorts and sandshoes without socks, and of course the Amazons had blue shorts.
When I went to Wellington (Boys) College, Wellington New Zealand in the 1950s, flannel shorts with thick long socks which needed garters to keep them up were the year round uniform - right up to hairy-legged sixth formers of 17 & 18! Though in summer thin khaki shorts & sandals (without socks!) were OK in the school grounds for the (few) boarders. In the 1970s we had office workers in walk shorts, sometimes with sandals with sox.
While my son’s Onslow College does not have a uniform, junior Wellington College pupils still wear shorts - though mostly so long that you can barely see their knees between the shorts and the top of the socks. They no longer have caps though!
Re the US Navy, the sight of Admirals and Generals in shorts may have intrigued the Americans, though US sailors sometimes wore them when working. Shorts were common for formal uniforms and work in the Australian & New Zealand forces too. When the US cruisers Houston and Marblehead were bombed and severely damaged in the Battle of the Java Sea on February 4th 1942, “Most of the severe injuries were burns on exposed parts of the body; it was largely as a result of this experience that the United States Navy forbade shorts or sleeveless shirts to be worn at sea, no matter how hot the climate”. Samuel Elliot Morison: page 301 of “The Rising Sun in the Pacific: 1931-April 1942” (1948), Volume 3 in his History of the United States Naval Operations in WWII.