DYRMS uniform in the 1970s
The smart DYRMS parade uniform known as 'Blues'
I entered The Duke of York’s Royal Military School in 1974 aged 11 and left in 1981 at the age of 18. There were
several distinct uniforms worn by pupils at that time:
During my during my time at the school the uniforms, and rules relating to them, were
subject to only minor changes.
Some items of kit were issued in advance after your parents had filled in your detailed measurements on a form
and returned it to the school:
Underpants: On arrival most new boys were wearing regular white kids' ‘Y fronts’. As you grew, these
were replaced by army issue olive green Y front 'junglies'. Then later still, as you grew more, by army issue olive
green boxer shorts. These items weren’t always new and were often faded, but this progression of a boy's pants
was always a matter of great pride as it marked you as a ‘man’.
Socks: These were also army issue, olive green, tailored from coarse, heavy duty wool. Fortunately
these were always new. They kept your feet warm in winter and roasted them in summer. This posed problems, as will
be described later. In the sixth form, by special request, I was permitted to wear normal thin nylon socks.
Pyjamas: Oddly they were not army issue in the first instance. This was probably due to the fact
that the army didn’t have stocks of pyjamas in such small sizes. To maintain uniformity amongst the junior boys,
the school resorted to bulk buying and everyone wore 'Tom and Jerry' pyjamas with pictures of the two cartoon animals
plastered all over them. As you became older, these somewhat juvenile garments were replaced by more adult-style
PJs of the ‘up and down stripes’ type that you see in old British films. Woe betide if you had not progressed into
these by the time you reached your senior house (beginning of year three, generally aged 13) as the Tom and Jerry
PJs would mark you out for ridicule.
All new boys had to pay a visit to the Q.M. (Quartermaster's) Store. This building adjoined the tuck shop and sports
store in the centre of the school and had that special smell of all clothing stores, a highly polished floor and
a general aura of calm and tranquillity. A sign on the wall proclaimed : 'Miracles we do at once…The impossible
may take a little longer.'
In keeping with the best military tradition, it was always very difficult to get anything at the stores. The staff
involved made it seem as if:
The QM was, naturally, an ex Army Officer. He was a small, quiet, precise man who was assisted by two stores men dressed in shabby brown overalls. The first item thy gave you was a capacious sausage-shaped army kitbag in which to carry your newly issued uniform items back to your boarding house. The bag soon filled up as I was issued with the following items:
The official school uniform of long black trousers and dark navy blazer with the school crest embroidered
on the breast pocket. School prefects wore a single white band around their arm, just above the cuff, and the senior
prefects wore two bands. Shirts were grey for junior boys (first and second years) and white for the rest of the
school, except prefects who wore blue shirts. Later on this regulation was reversed so that prefects wore white
shirts and the other seniors wore blue.
Shoes were black leather army issue and whilst you were in the junior school your shoes were
inspected every Sunday. This was to ensure that the heels had not worn down excessively and that the seam at the
back had not split. In the senior school you were expected to inspect your own shoes, though often a curt reminder
from the housemaster or prefects was needed. All shoes deemed in need of repair were fastened together by their
laces, slung over a hockey stick, and conveyed to the cobbler's shop first thing on Monday morning. In order to
prevent excessive damage to the rear seam of one's shoes, every boy was issued with a shoehorn on joining. Mine
lasted less than a week, and most boys' didn’t last any longer.
Ties were in the school colours of burgundy, blue and white. House prefect’s ties were burgundy only,
with a single diagonal stripe in your house colour.
Raincoats were rarely new, blue(ish) in colour and difficult to keep in your possession. When it
was raining and you were running late it was easier to grab any garment from the lines of identical coats than
to search for your own.
Parade uniform: generally known as ‘Blues’, the official name being ‘No 1 Dress’. This consisted
of dark blue trousers and tunic with a high stand-up collar, smartly tailored in a heavy woolen material. The trousers
featured a broad red stripe down the outside of the legs. Blues were worn with a 'stable belt' which fastened with
a brass buckl and this had to be cleaned with Duraglit polish before the Sunday church parade.
Our regulation head dress was a navy blue beret. A brand new beret needed some preparation before
it was ready to be worn. It was first of all shaped by wetting it, wringing it out, then placing it on the head
and ensuring that it was tight on the left and all the overhang from the excess material was on the right. The
beret was then removed and allowed to dry. Once this had all been done, the beret would hold its shape indefinitely.
The school badge was worn on the beret, above the left eye, and your father's regimental cap badge (if applicable)
displayed in the second button down of your tunic. White gloves were worn when on parade.
A boy's shoes were expected to be ‘bulled’ to some degree. Copious amounts of shoe polish (only Kiwi, nothing else
worked as well) had to be rubbed with a duster into the toecap of the shoe, mixed with the odd drop of water (or
even spit, though this didn’t work as well, despite the traditional phrase ‘spit and polish.). This was an art
which was slowly learned in the aptly named ‘Boot Room’ (a room with dozens of hot water pipes running through
it, used for drying clothes and footwear, as well as for generally bulling your kit and for unofficial drum/band
practice). There were slightly different ways of bulling, though of course your own way was always the best!
The tradition of shoes bulled to a mirror-like sheen was one which was still a fact of life when I joined, but
by the time I left the school standards had begun to decline. However, the NCOs (sergeants and corporals) and JUOs
(Junior Under Officers) still kept to the old practice and on the Sunday Parades, at least, all the boys were expected
to have properly bulled shoes.
The final piece of parade uniform was the greatcoat, only worn when it was officially deemed cold
enough. This garment was both a blessing and a curse. The parade ground was exposed to the elements and the coat
certainly kept a boy warm. But the coat was also very stiff and heavy, restricting your movement so that it was
an effort to swing your arms. When the parade was over, removing the cumbersome greatcoat left you feeling lighter
than air and almost hovering above the ground!
Civilian Uniform: All pupils when outside the school grounds wore this - on official school trips,
shopping trips to Dover and also when travelling to and from school at either end of term. Civilian uniform was
the same as school uniform in every respect except two - white shirts were worn by everyone and your parents had
to pay for it.
'Civvies' (Normal clothes): When I joined the school in 1974 there was no such thing as civilian
clothing. You arrived in your civvies, but after the first change of clothing that was it. You wore school uniform
when in school, blues on Sunday church parade and civilian uniform if you went out of school, including when travelling
to and from school (door to door, though some brave souls changed when they got as far as London.) I believe that
the sixth form were allowed some civvies for sixth form dances (discos).
When I joined the fifth form (aged 16) in 1979 the rules were relaxed and we were allowed to wear civvies while
we were in school after lessons and at weekends. Sixth formers were also allowed to wear them out of school. This
was quite a radical change and came as a surprise announcement. Welcome as the changes were, there were rules relating
to what one could or couldn’t wear. Jeans, for example, were not allowed, and clothing had to be in good repair.
The jeans rule was never strictly enforced and after a year it was abandoned.
CCF uniform: All boys in the senior school were required to take part in Combined Cadet Force training
on Friday afternoons. This should theoretically have encompassed all three services (army, navy and air force)
to be a truly 'combined' cadet force, but there were no naval or air force sections. This activity required a different
outfit again: an olive green army uniform consisting of lightweight combat trousers, a heavy green shirt made from
rough hessian and a green woollen military pullover. Cadets also wore a plastic belt, beret and boots. For the
annual summer camp, cadets were issued with khaki serge battledress. Towards the end of my time at the school,
the battledress was replaced with the more up to date DPM (disruptive pattern material) camouflage clothing.
Sports kit: This was mostly supplied by your parents (though bought through a local shop) and consisted
of two rugby shirts (one in school colour, burgundy, and one in your house colour) rugby shorts, boots, and a tracksuit.
The school provided (army issue) trainers, one black pair and one white pair.
Laundry: The inevitable by-product of having so many items of uniform is the necessity of getting
them cleaned. Twice a week, clean laundry was left on top of your locker, rolled in your army-issue towel and comprising
a clean shirt, underpants and socks, a vest (if worn) and hanky (in the unlikely event of your having any). Your
dirty items were placed in large laundry baskets, which were sent off to a local laundry. The house matron was
responsible for labelling, sorting and generally mothering such laundry. The result of the (now) unthinkable practice
of only changing laundry twice a week was that I suffered from sweaty (and therefore smelly) feet. By the time
I reached the sixth Form (aged 17) I was allowed to have thin nylon socks in place of the regulation thick green
woollen articles. This avoided having to leave my shoes and socks out on the window ledge each night.