The Spyers brothers by RA Gilbert. The earliest portrait of Radley College pupils.

Frequently asked questions. So what is the school uniform? Or, is there a school uniform? Is it the same for all pupils? Do scholars wear a different uniform? Is there a different uniform for junior or senior boys? Has it ever changed?

Like all answers it depends … But there is one abiding feature and that is the academic gown. In 2023, all pupils wear their gowns during the winter months. For the last ten years this has included an embroidered badge with the colours of the individual Socials.

The gowns were there right from the start, and right from the start they have been used and abused by their wearers. At the 50th anniversary of the school in 1897 they were celebrated thus: ‘The gown serves many useful purposes. It hides the shortening jacket of the growing boy as the term advances. It may be spread over the head like an awning for a temporary run in a shower of rain. Used like a housemaid’s apron, it may convey a great quantity of books from one receptacle to another, when desks or studies have to be changed. The sleeve is serviceable if you have the misfortune to upset ink, or may serve to mitigate the hardness of the desk to your elbow, if you wish to take a little repose in school on a hot afternoon.’ (Raikes, 1897)

Alongside the gowns, there were originally ‘caps’ or mortar-boards. Originally, all boys wore a mortar-board with a black tassel. The prefects were distinguished by their silver tassels, with the Senior Prefect wearing gold. Dons, too, wore full academic dress.

Warden William Wood with the Sixth Form in 1867. The prefects can be identified by the silver tassels, while the more junior boys have black tassels on their mortar-boards. But not all of them have them with them for the photo.

Clare Sargent