In the Archives and the Old Bathurstians’ Museum, we have memorabilia from the past in the form of badges, ties, crests and uniforms stored, or on display, dating from the early days of both schools. Unfortunately, there are too many to display in cabinets or on mannequins, but we do have photos where the uniforms and badges were worn by students in the past.
The early everyday uniforms for the boys appear to be made of heavy-duty cotton or wool jackets, waistcoats, plus fours, or shorts, white collars, shirts and ties. The school colours, badge, and crest were introduced by HM Bean, the colours red, white, and blue. He also formed a cadet corps, and the dress uniform for that time was the red coat and blue trousers with a red stripe down the side.
A school hatband had the letters A.S.C. round the band-which the day boys would remove once in town ‘perhaps from the fact that they were known as All Saints’ College boys by the street larrikins, who saluted them as “treacle eaters”.’ There appeared to be no regulation tie or hat at this time, but all students appeared to be wearing heavy-duty laced boots.
Various sports uniforms of the early days can be seen in the team photos, and the school clothing list of 1911 is shown below.
On the reopening of the school in 1923 on the Esrom property, there was a prospectus put out with the uniform list, which was little different to the earlier list. The uniform did change, and by the 1950s, the daily uniform worn was a standard grey lumber jacket with long or short trousers and a school tie in school colours and a crest. The school suit was worn with a school tie, and there was a house tie worn on school days. The prefect’s blazer was a dark navy, and the 1st XV wore a different coloured sweater to the other junior teams.
Over the next decades, there was little change to the school uniform except in the different sports where the school colours were more prominent. Headwear such as boaters, caps, and felt hats all had school crests on the bands or fabric.
Right from the beginning, when Marsden opened in 1925, there was a school crest and a uniform designed to be worn by the first students. The Marsden colours were royal blue, scarlet and gold, which are featured in the first Marsden School badge and crest. The first outfit list can be seen in the image attached. There were many changes over the next 50 years, but the primary school colour of royal blue is featured in all uniforms.
When Marsden and All Saints’ merged, there was a period when two different girls’ uniforms were worn, then the bright red blazer and green tartan kilt became standard; girls were often referred to as the living Christmas trees! Boys wore a dark navy blazer with a blue crested tie, and the Year 12 students had a blue jumper for school wear.
The sports uniform mixed the red and blue in different combinations, and the Rugby 1st XV had a red and white sweater for a period, and the junior teams wore a red sweater. There have been many different ties worn by the boys over the years, depending on the age, house or program and in the latter years, the girls wore a short, blue ribbon on a peter pan collared white blouse. The girls’ sports uniforms varied with the sport played, but the school colours were dominant.
House polo shirts were Barton red, Bean yellow or Long blue, and the school polo was white. Sports shorts were dark blue except for the cricket whites. The school sports cap was blue except for the cricket 1st XI’s red ‘baggie’. The Senior School jumpers were navy, but the Junior School uniform jumpers were either red or royal blue. Even today, in the new school, those blue and red jumpers are worn by the Scots All Saints junior school students with the new Scots All Saints crest.
Over the last 150 years, school colours, uniforms, badges and crests are still treasured by many past students who say that wearing those in their school days not only promoted the school spirit and identity but also gave them self-confidence and a sense of belonging.
Mrs Memory Sanders
Archives
