Boots and breeches

I recently bought an old '43 HMA annual and just finished reading it. This was three years before I started at Hargrave Military Academy, but there were some cadets in it that I remembered as they were in Junior School then.

The uniform differed a little in that all cadets wore a leather belt with brass or gold plate buckle. The total cost of both belts and buckles was $2.00. They also had a web belt with slide buckle which is what we used in '45.

Some of the officers wore riding breeches and high boots and used capes instead of overcoats. The cadets used overcoats with half capes. I had one of these in '45 as my folks could not afford a new overcoat for me. The overcoat was the most expensive part of the uniform. The half cape had a red lining and looked pretty sharp when worn in the open position.

I noticed also that the drum major had a very fancy white uniform and hat with lots of brass buttons.

Smoking was discouraged but allowed to senior school cadets with parental permission but not to any of the Junior school kids.

I noticed that the basketball team had several different jerseys, one of which said "Harris Cleaners".

One of the teachers there was Lt. Col. Thomas Cunningham. He had been an army officer since 1898. He was PSM&T my first year there. He had served in the Philippine Insurection as a calvary officer.

Another familiar face was that of S.P.G. "Jack" Spratt. He had been a lawyer and Customs Agent but married Col. Camden's sister (the school president) no, not the sister, but the Col. was the president. Anyway, I never knew what his real name was until recently I found out it was Samuel Perry Godfrey Spratt.

The track team picture showed the bamboo poles we used for the pole vault. Not much give to those things but better than the aluminum poles. Some of the nicknames were interesting: "Ears","Tiger","Goon","Bugs". "Horse" (Hmmm).

Leon Rue
leonrue@adelphia.net
Class of '49