The Battledress Era (two)

The appearance of battledress was smartened up a few years after the war. The blouse was now better tailored and acquired an open step collar so that it could be worn with a shirt and tie. The voluminous trousers were narrowed in width and the pockets rearranged, with the big map pocket being repositioned at the side. The now familiar British army beret, usually navy blue in colour but also issued in other shades for particular regiments, became the standard head-dress.

This '1949 pattern' battledress incorporated the same 1937 pattern webbing belt and gaiters, together with the tried and tested hobnailed boots. (Rubber soled boots did not really make an appearance until the 1960s.) As well as being the official dress of army cadets, battledress was worn by thousands of national servicemen in the 1950s and the khaki uniform was a familiar sight on the streets of Britain.

Like the original wartime battledress, the smartened up version had its shortcomings but conscientious cadets endeavoured to make the most of a bad job and look as smart as could be managed. The fault often lay with cadet quartermasters, who persisted in issuing boys with over large uniforms on the supposition that they would 'grow into them.' One cadet officer observed that small cadets in outsized battledresses all too often looked like 'animated potato sacks.'

Although the regular army had abandoned battledress by the early 1960s, a shortage of funds dictated that cadets continued to be clothed in the uniform for a further decade. Some schools acquired a few sets of the smart new No 2 dress, issuing this uniform to cadet NCOs to wear as a privilege in place of battledress. This no doubt caused some resentment in the ranks.

Coloured cloth CCF insignia, denoting the cadet's school, were worn on the shoulders of the battledress blouse, whilst there was room on the sleeves for badges of rank and attainment.

Since battledress was the cadet's parade uniform (despite the name, it was not really deemed suitable for the battlefield) it needed to be kept in good condition. After all, cadets were very much in the public eye and the sight of smartly turned-out boys reflected well upon the army. Cadets were therefore provided with lightweight 'denims', (seen in the photo left) which were supposed to be worn over the battledress when necessary in order to protect the precious uniform from soiling. However, as often as not the denims were worn solo, and it could not be claimed that these oversized and shapeless garments conferred much dignity upon the average cadet.

The cadet movement celebrated its centenary in 1960 and in 1969 the Army Board set up a review committee to examine the aims, training and administration of the cadet forces. National service had ended a decade earlier and it was in the army's interest to make membership of the cadets attractive to teenage boys, who were of course potential army recruits. One of the recommendations was that battledress should cease to be the official dress of cadets and that recruits should receive modern kit, more akin to that issued to the regular army. The changeover took a few years to work through the system, but by 1973-74 cadets had said goodbye to battledress for good.

Some larger schools were able to field a Combined Cadet Force in the true meaning of the term, with individual sections for each of the three services. This detail from a 1960 photograph of a South London grammar school CCF shows Army Cadets in the front two rows, with Royal Navy Section Cadets behind and Royal Air Force Section Cadets at the rear. In the full panorama the Army Section is very much in the majority (122 boys) with 28 RAF Cadets and 19 RN Cadets. New recruits would usually undertake basic training in the Army Section before being permitted to transfer to one of the other sections.

Some memories of the battledress era:

Our cadet uniform in those days was 'battledress, khaki' and 'shirts, hairy'. The battledress was similar to that worn during the Second World War and was made of incredibly rough and itchy serge. Not only that, it had been treated with an anti-moth agent and smelled somewhat strange. The 'shirts, hairy' were torture to wear and didn't improve until they'd been washed a couple of dozen times. Boots had to be polished to a mirror like shine, belts and gaiters blancoed, and brass buckles polished. There were weekly Thursday afternoon parades and we learned to read maps and estimate distances in order to bring down artillery fire on the 'enemy'. There were also summer camps at places like Warcop, where we undertook gruelling route marches in full kit. Miscreants would be put on a charge, which usually meant having to run around the school grounds with a rifle held above your head.

I was pressganged into the school cadets, army section, without any say on my part, as my father was a real soldier, a captain in the Royal Engineers. So my weekly miseries began: wearing an oversized uniform that chafed constantly, suffering boys in my class who were lucky enough not to be cadets deliberately tramping on and ruining my shiny toe caps, being shouted at and prodded by numerous ogre-like NCO's. I was a permanent member of that exclusive club, 'defaulters'

The Naval Section provided ( so I thought) an escape route from all the squarebashing and bull in the army section. My plan went wrong when the complicated sailor's uniform turned out to be almost impossible to maintain and also exposed me to serious ridicule on the bus to school.

I was in the CCF but can't remember much about it except that I always looked untidy in the uniform. I could never get my boots shiny enough or my belt spotless enough (the dreaded word 'blanco' pops into mind here) Anyway, I only joined so I could use the rifle range.

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The Traditional English Schoolboy

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