The Eton suit is probably the only instance of a specific school uniform (that of the younger boys of Eton College) becoming a general juvenile fashion. The costume gradually evolved during the 19th century, and by the Edwardian era boys from respectable families were invariably put into the ubiquitous Eton suit as their Sunday best outfit. In the meantime, at many private schools 'Etons' became the everyday dress of younger pupils.
In this photograph two Eton boys are seen wearing Eton suits with the characteristic 'bum-freezer' jacket and broad starched collar, whilst their taller companion has graduated to a tailcoat. At Eton College it was the rule that boys remained in Etons until they reached the height of 5'4". In the early 1900s boys were generally an inch or two shorter at particular ages than they are today and some pupils at Eton and other schools continued to wear the juvenile Eton suit until the age of 15 or even 16.
Winston Churchill, the grandson of the wartime prime minister who attended Eton in the mid-1950s, recalled with obvious pain in his autobiography, that 'I, being among the smallest boys in the school, was required to wear a short Eton jacket, colloqially known asa bum-freezer, together with a broad and most uncomfortable starched collar. I had to suffer this indignity for at least two years for, even at 15, I was one of the smallest boys in the school.' An even worse fate befell the slightly built Anthony Armstrong-Jones (now Lord Snowdon). A recent biographical article stated that his contemporaries at Eton 'seem to have no recollection of him at all - perhaps because he wore bumfreezers until the day he left, being too short for a tailcoat.' In a similar vein the Duke of Beaufort who attended the school before the First World War, recalled: 'When I arrived at Eton I must have been under 5'4" tall, for I had to wear an abominable Eton suit with a big, stiff and desperately uncomfortable collar.'
Eton boys wore top hats with their Eton suits until Second World War shortages caused this dignified mode of headgear to be phased out. At other schools straw boaters or ordinary schoolcaps might be worn with Etons. In 1967 the Eton suit was finally abolished at the school which had given the outfit its name. As an official school history puts it: 'Late developing boys often worry about their stature and the different dress added to their disquiet.' From September 1967 all new boys, however diminuitive, went straight into tails.
The Eton suit was also popular in choir schools in the first half of the 20th century and today these institutions remain its last redoubt. When worn with cassock and surplice the Eton collar can substitute for the normal chorister's ruff and a number of cathedral and collegiate choirs (the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral is an example) still outfit their choirboys so. The boys of King's College Choir, Cambridge, wear full Etons with top hats whilst the choristers of St Paul's Cathedral in London sometimes turn out in Eton suits for concerts, as evidenced by the picture below, taken from a televised performance.
The Eton suit in the movies
In the present era, when most boys' clothing is so comfortable and casual, the sober and formal Eton suit with its waistcoat, striped trousers and large stiff white collar appears to be a museum piece. Yet there can be no denying the outfit's smartness and dignity.
One only has to view the movies A Yank at Eton or Goodbye Mr Chips (the 1939 Robert Donat version, the 1969 musical film with Peter O'Toole, or the BBC TV adaptation) to be transported back to a more sedate age when a schoolboy in Etons and topper was very much the 'junior gentleman.'
Indeed, Etons were the mark of the well-born boy and although later unmasked as an impostor, Freddie Bartholemew cuts a convincingly aristocratic figure in the prewar film Lord Jeff. An Eton suit was also worn in one memorable scene by The Winslow Boy in the classic 1948 film.
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The Traditional English Schoolboy
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