Quote:
Originally Posted by cbuehler
Fascinating photos. I have always been amazed at the small stature and build of boys and men back then. I am not sure the RSM was actually all that big; just that the boys size reflect the times and their class.
I have collected pre WW1 uniforms for fifty years and have yet to own or see any that would fit my modest 40 inch chest size. Officer uniforms sometimes come close, but not OR. Such a size or more did of course exist, but were few indeed.
I knew a dealer/collector from years ago who used to state that the old British Army were all midgets...
CB
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Malnutrition was a significant national problem that came to public prominence during the 2nd Anglo/Boer War 1899-1902, when significant numbers of volunteers and ‘embodied’ (mobilised) militia men failed to meet minimum medical standards for a recruit. The subsequent interdepartmental committee report revealed the appalling state of men stunted by lack of nutrition and an unhealthy lifestyle. See:
https://history.port.ac.uk/?p=2264
This was largely why uniforms were so small. Things had changed only a little by the year 1914 and by 1917-18 the appearance of British recruits alongside Canadians, ANZACs and eventually Americans was a profound embarrassment as Britain scraped the bottom of its barrel after 3-years of attritional, industrial scale slaughter. Despite that massive National effort apparently slightly less than a quarter of all the nation’s men “of military age” ever served in uniform with around 20% of them KIA and another 20% maimed to some degree.