I imagine that if baseball caps worn backwards and indoors were the school cap, there would be no problem in getting today's youth to wear them! Please keep blazers, all that has been said about pride is so true.

At Heathrow a few years ago, feeling bored and mischievous, I persuaded a group of reverse-baseball cap wearing American schoolboys that it was illegal in the UK to wear baseball caps backwards. They all dutifully turned them around and set off looking like a large group of Daffy Ducks

Dave Rolls wrote:
John Stanyon wrote:
One morning when leaning over the parapet Bob's cap was blown off when an engine passed below

I have to confess that the passage of my cap down the funnel was no accident but was manually assisted

Oh well, that's a bit different

Tony mentioned pride in wearing one's uniform. I recall one morning in my 1st year feeling full of pride when walking to the bus stop one morning in my then newish DHS uniform, so I can relate to that; I got a bit more disaffected as I got older and that came to weigh less with me.

I think the strongest case for making uniform compulsory is that pupils at DHS are being prepared for professional careers for the most part where they will by and large be expected to wear suits and ties (a uniform of sorts), so it's worth their getting used to it early on.

I also think that if uniforms were scrapped at DHS we'd see a 21st century analogue of the sartorial "creativity" I witnessed in the '70s, when half the school seemed to want to look like David Bowie (only without anything like his makeup budget) and others turned up in as close to skinhead gear as they could get away with.

Furthermore, I don't know of any boys' grammar schools which don't have uniform.

Such is the case for, but I'm more than happy to read and consider any arguments against. Are there economic ones, for example, if uniform is too expensive for some families?

* I think DHS Girls abolished it in the 6th form.

Graham Giles wrote:

* I think DHS Girls abolished it in the 6th form.

At the expense of being ridiculed, once again, I think it common knowledge that a percentage couldn't get the brown cotton knickers off fast enough

I'll take your word for that John, though what you're referring to is more likely to be envy (that someone back then was getting some) than ridicule . Most of the lads I knew who had girlfriends during their schooldays were dating Stoke Damerel rather than DHS girls, partly because of the proximity of the two schools and the number of inter-school functions which took place such as debates, plays etc.

Ah, Dear Graham, I think thou dost interpret my words in only one of several possible ways.
We (well, some of us), too, did dally with some of the delights of Stoke Damerel. The last play jointly produced in my time, that I recall, was The Midshipmaid. !958, I believe. Alas I was smitten by a lass from DHS, who even caused me to attend Bible Classes on Saturday mornings and Confirmation Classes at St. Andrews Church, newly consecrated, as well as many other less salubrious haunts around town. The good lady became my first wife many years later and bore us two great sons. In fact most of my cohorts chased skirt from DHS although there were those who were not averse to trying whatever was on offer. Saturday mornings were the catalyst.
A close friend of mine, Mel Dunkin, recently penned a ten verse Ode to the first of our year to turn 70, on the 5th March. It was in relation to Peter Eames. I will try to get it published here. From a very close set of five little darlings, four of us still communicate on a regular basis even though we are seperated by the tyranny of distance; one Jo'burg, one in Spain, one in Cornwall and myself. Bob Griffin, R.I.P.