DYRMS uniform in the 1940s
'In the late 1940s we DYRMS boys wore khaki serge short trousers which we kept sharply creased by sleeping with them under the mattress. My older brother, who entered the school a year or two before me, once got punished by one of the schoolmasters (no nonsense sergeants from the Royal Army Education Corps) because I got a hole in my short trousers through rough play. He said my brother should have kept an eye on me. This particular master had once taught in borstals and used a rifle sling bent double to administer a thrashing.
'The miniature khaki service dress tunic we wore with the shorts had brass buttons which we were expected to polish every day. The high collar fastened with two hooks and boys were not permitted to wear the tunic with the collar unfastened, however warm the weather might be. Thick khaki woollen stockings, reaching to just below the knee, were worn with hobnailed army boots, which had to be kept highly polished. A khaki side cap completed the uniform: it had two small brass buttons at the front and was piped in red.
'This uniform was worn from when you got up in the morning until you went to bed. You were
provided with one set of clean underwear a week. To buy civilian clothes at that time you would have needed clothing
coupons; none were issued to
us boys and no 'civvies' of any description were supplied by the school. So the khaki DYRMS uniform was your only
suit of clothes in term time.
'Regulations regarding the wearing of the uniform were strict. As mentioned, your brass buttons and army boots always had to be well polished and, in addition, hair had to be kept short. If you did not want to lose most of your hair it was advisable to slip the barber a few coppers. The more you gave him the more hair he left you with!
'I never really wanted to go to the school but had no choice in the matter. We had no mother and no real home, so we spent most of our holidays at the school. My father served a total of forty years in the army, including both world wars. He told me he had begun to earn his own living in the army at the age of fifteen, and I should do the same.'