- Winter 2024
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- From the Archives: Change and continuity in the Trinity uniform
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From the Archives: Change and continuity in the Trinity uniform
Maureen McAuley, Archivist
The colour of the uniform (green being the colour for Trinity Sunday in the church calendar) was one of the very first decisions made by the School Council in 1903.
The uniform as we know it today has been in place since 1985 when Headmaster Don Marles decreed that all students would henceforth wear the blazer. For the previous 50 years, students mostly wore grey suits, whilst blazers were reserved for members of student leadership and sports teams.
The current uniform list contains nearly 20 compulsory items of school uniform, not including the many variations of sportswear. From 1903 until 1917, school uniform consisted of one item, the school cap.
The first examples were hand embroidered and are proudly worn by the students in the Foundation photograph taken on the steps of Holy Trinity in 1903.
The demise of the cap in senior school in the 1960s was no doubt hastened by the rejection of the ‘short back and sides’ in favour of the more fashionable hairstyles of the day.
1903 Foundation students at Holy Trinity wearing school caps
For the first two decades of Trinity’s existence, there was no agreed dress code. Early photographs show students wearing a variety of outfits including sailor suits, Eton and lace collars, tweed jackets, knickerbockers and three-piece suits with watch chains.
Blazers were introduced in 1918, partly as an inducement for students to become involved in school sports and thus gain the privilege of wearing the green blazer. By the 1930s, the uniform had settled with students wearing suits with jumper, shirt and tie and of course, the school cap.
Recent years have seen some minor changes to uniform: polyester has replaced the woollen blazer and open neck shirts have been introduced for summer wear. However, remaining unchanged has been the distinctive Trinity green.
Today after 121 years, students continue to proudly wear the green and the gold and the mitre, an integral part of our Trinity identity.
1977 Year 7 blazers and jackets
Archives Acknowledgements
John Dunkin (OTG 1969) who donated his blazer, cap and sporting memorabilia (pictured right).
Richard Hogg (1971) and Alastair Gunn (1972) both of whom sent photographs of their time at Trinity in the 1960s and 1970s and Alastair for also sharing his memoirs.
Megan Burgess and Joyce Francis for arranging the donation of the 1904 whole school photograph and information about Royden Bennett (OTG 1906).
