This month, I have pleasure in presnting something very, very special: the dress discipline extracts from the British Library files of the extremely rare publications of Eric Arthur Wildman. Mr Wildman was especially interested in corporal punishment, and it is obvious from the material quoted here that he was strongly against petticoat discipline. In this fashion, he was really the mirror image of me.

I don't mind a loving, over-the-knee nursery spanking administered with a hairbrush on the seat of a pair of frilly cotton knickers, as I think this is a useful accompaniment to general petticoat discipline, and does no harm and a great deal of good. However, I generally find corporal punishment brutal, pointless, and something that is difficult to do with any expression of real love, except perhaps between wife and husband.

Nevertheless, his correspondence did include references to dress discipline, and these were researched and collected by Peter Farrer. Peter has very kindly sent his findings to me, and I present them here for the interested study of my readers. E.A. Wildman's own comments are presented in italics and round brackets, while Peter Farrer's interpolations appear in square brackets, as is the usual practice. One very small addition by me is in lucinda calligraphy. Shelf references are also given, in square brackets at the end of each quoted piece. The introductory text is by Peter Farrer:
 

     Around 1950 Eric Arthur Wildman issued a series of short magazines or leaflets in typescript form advocating the continuance of corporal punishment at home and in schools. At the time I was aware of them being on sale in the London streets, and I knew that they contained letters from private correspondents. Wildman was eventually convicted and fined £500 for obscene libel in May 1953 [Ian Gibson, The English Vice, London: Gerald Duckworth & Co (1978), pp. 60-1]. When Patrick J. Kearney's The Private Case was published [London: Jay Landesman, 1981], I discovered that the British Library possesses six large brown paper parcels of his compilations, shelved at P.C.i.3-119. I realised that Wildman was only interested in physical punishment, but I wondered whether any of his correspondents had reported any instances of punishment by dress. This is what I found:

1) The Corpun News Bulletin. Supplement to Vol. A  (November 10th, 1947)
 
 Ref. 442  Correspondent F.L.R. (Westcliffe-on-Sea):
 
 A good spanking in a kilt is a splendid, because humbling, discipline in a naughty boy. A boy feels that he is being treated as a silly naughty little boy.
 
 [P.C. 15.i.38a]
 
 
2) The International Retentionist Gazette Vol. A 12 (October 20th, 1949)

     [Refers to Correspondent F.L.R]:

Years ago the majority of disciplinarians were fully alive to the possibilities that existed in this field. I have read of boys and girls being forced to attire themselves in various punishment garments, often with excellent results. [mentions experience of mother’s friend with four boys and two girls. All were whipped over tight rubber knickers, which were then kept on until evening.]

[P.C. 15.i.49 (2)]
 
3) The International Retentionist Gazette Vol. A 13 (December 1st 1949), pp.11-2 

 My wife and myself were very interested in the letter in the Gazette on the use of dress in discipline. At one time it was a common thing for boys to be made to wear their sisters’ clothes as punishment, and Sir James Barrie refers to this in his Peter Pan [It is in fact in the chapter entitled 'Grand Tour of the Gardens' in The Little White Bird published in 1902: for details see pp. 132-4 of my The Regime of the Stay-lace (1995)].
 
In one case we know of a boy of 13 who is still punished in this way from time to time for such offences as bad manners, noisiness etc. and his mother finds it most efficacious. Punishment dress has a great influence, but apart from the fact of punishment - the clothes worn have a tremendous effect upon discipline. The child who is dressed as a child is always be more amenable than one who thinks he is grown up because allowed to wear long trousers.

 With this object in view, out of school we dress our 12 year old boy in a blouse and velvet shorts with white socks. He looks smart and his dress makes him realise that he is still a young child. Like his sister, he wears a pinafore in the house, and this garment is also an aid to discipline.

(Boy consulted disapproves of the blouse.)
 

4) The International Retentionist Gazette Vol. A 13 (December 1st 1949), pp.14 

A gentleman visitor waxed eloquent upon the value of the pinafore as a disciplinary garment and assured me that in his own home his brothers and sisters, like himself, had all worn white starched pinafores. The penalty for soiling the garment had been six cuts across the bottom with the cane, regardless of excuse.

[P.C.i.49 (13)]
 

5)  The Corpun International Consultant’s Booklet No. 7 (June 1950) 

I was delighted to see that you are producing one of your invaluable booklets on the subject of  'Dress and Discipline'. The close connection between the two subjects does not seem sufficiently recognised. The Victorians, who were experts in the upbringing of children, knew the importance of the subject. Naughty boys were then often punished by being made to wear their sisters’ clothes - a punishment which soon took the bounce out of bad lads.
 
Children were also expected to look clean and tidy. Gloves were always worn, and children werdressed as children, and not as young spivs.  Pinafores were always hated by boys, and were a particularly popular garment for disciplinary purposes. With the present price of clothes they may well return to popularity.

   My own boy who is 13 is still sometimes put in his sister’s clothes for bad behaviour, and always with good effect. On Sundays and for "best" he wears a kilt with white silk blouse, white socks and gloves. This helps to remind him that he is not a young spiv, and that he must do as he is told. If he spills food down his clothes I make him wear a bib for meals, and can assure your readers that this is a certain cure for a dirty feeder.

  At all times I insist on a high standard in appearance, and the results obtained justify the means.

  Yours sincerely,
  Mrs. E.P., Berks.

     (Whether only Mrs. E.P. considers that the “results” justify the means, my readers will undoubtedly decide. I personally do not approve such methods of “discipline,” although certain sentiments expressed by Mrs. E.P. appear sound enough).
 
[P.C.i.28 (1)]
 

6)  The International Retentionist Gazette Vol. A 26 (January 1st, 1951) pp. 5-6
 

[A family of three boys and two girls: the writer is 14 in 1939: the family moves to Scotland at the beginning of the war, but he stays with his uncle and aunt, who have a daughter, Daphne, of the same age, 15. Daphne is dressed as schoolgirl: he stays in shorts until 16 ½]

…because Aunt said that "knickers were more suitable for schoolboys". When my shorts became worn she made me a kilt, which I had to wear on holidays and at the weekend sometimes. I did not really mind wearing shorts, although most boys of my age, and even younger ones too, were wearing long trousers. After all they are neater, more comfortable and less expensive. I can certainly say that I never felt cold even in my brief short ones. On the other hand I hated wearing that kilt for a whole variety of reasons. I think I must have been almost the only boy of my age in our Midland town who wore one, and I always felt that mine was short anyway. Worst of all were the schoolgirl bloomers which had a habit of showing if I sat down carelessly. I had to pull up my kilt sometimes so that Aunt could slap my thighs, and when wearing this kilt I was sometimes given a spanking with the hairbrush on my bare bottom, and my bloomers were sometimes kept off as further punishment.

     The worst punishment which Aunt ever gave me, I had on one occasion for cheekiness. She made me put on an old blouse, knickers and skirt of Daphne’s, and under threat of the switch I had to wear them - sometimes for several hours. I could almost have wept each time I was made to wear these humiliating clothes, so brief, so tight and so thin. They did cure my cheekiness but a few smart spanks with a cane would have done just as well.
 
[In one instance he defends Daphne for a small fault.]

…I kept on and on at her [i.e. his Aunt] and in the end she lost patience and sent me upstairs top put on Daphne’s clothes to teach me not to argue. When I returned dressed in Daphne’s clothes I had to join her in the corner while they had tea.
[Then they are both whipped by the uncle.]

     Ft. Lt. J.J. (full name and address supplied.)

[P.C.i.49 (26)]

7) The International Retentionist Gazette (May 1st 1951), p.3
 
 [M.L.T. (Essex) wants more about "Dress Discipline". The Editor refers to earlier letters, and invites comment].
 
 [P.C. 15.i.49 (30)]
 
8) The International Retentionist Gazette (June 1st, 1951)

 [Reply to above: at 15 lived with aunt who had twin daughters of same age: all punished for escapades: naked except for mackintosh cape]
 
Also I can vouch that the mackintosh - pulled tightly and snugly across my bottom saved any cutting of the skin but robbed the cane of none of its sting. Looking back I think that Aunt was right, and that this cape, with its soft clinging feel round my naked body, made a very impressive punishment dress and did its job.
E.C. (London)

[P.C. 15.i.49 (31)]

 9)  The Specialist International Retentionist Gazette:  Boy Specialist  (June 1951), p. 4

I attended an ordinary boys’ boarding school where there as probably rather more beating than was strictly necessary, and I have never forgotten my feeling of horror when one of the sixth formers made me put on a pair of his "kid sister’s bloomers". I was only a fag, and had I known the ropes I could easily have refused to do it.

 The  normal thing was to change into gym shorts for a caning, and because this boy was rather a wag, the story of my shame went right round the school in double-quick time.

[P.C. 15.i.50 (2)]

10) Article by the Editor:

p. 21 There is, however, one form of this so-called "punishment ritual" which appals me: 

     '…It happened to me at the age of 14. I was left in the care of two young women - both schoolteachers, Muriel (about 25) and Joan (about 28). We had known them for quite a long time and they were both good fun: my parents knew that they were popular with me.

You can imagine my surprise when on the evening of the first day that I was in their care I found myself read the "riot act". The older girl, Joan, told me very firmly that now that I was in their charge our relationship would have to be very different from heretofore. I was to treat them with much greater respect and to do exactly what I was told. Any deviations on my part were to be punished - with a sound spanking.

They had decided to keep a proper punishment book in which black marks in multiples of 5 would be recorded, and when I received a total of sixty I would be punished - either with 12 strokes of the cane, or with a spanking with what they called "the tolly".

Punishments were to be administered at 8 o’clock in the evening on the day when the marks reached the total of sixty, and "punishment dress" (as they called it) was to be worn, and would be put on half an hour before, and worn a further half an hour after the punishment had been administered. This "punishment dress", they explained, was to serve as a "mental reminder" to me that I was completely subject to their direction, and any feeling of indignity that I suffered when wearing "punishment clothes" would foster this situation.

The dress, I may say, consisted of a girl’s gym slip - white blouse - black stockings and navy blue gym-knickers; and they justified the choice of punishment costume. They believed (or so they said!) that girlish knickers were the ideal garment for wear when punishment on the bottom was going to be administered. The reasons being that they would obviate all possibility of the skin being scratched by the cane; they clearly outlined the seat; and the waist-band provided the person administering the punishment with a grip that could steady the victim and prevent undue writhing of the buttocks. Despite this usefulness, they pointed out, the knickers provided absolutely no projection from the sting of the cane, and, in fact, when pulled up tight they tended to increase the sting  rather than diminish it.

Punishment was administered with me bent across the kitchen table. "Bent across" is scarcely the correct term, for I was made to lie over it, and a leather strap was used to fasten down my waist. Once in this position with my girlish bloomers pulled up tight it was possible for Muriel to punish me as severely as she cared. She used the cane or "tolly" methodically and thoroughly - the "tolly" by the way was a piece of whale bone sandwiched between two skins of leather. It was 3 inches wide and about 20 inches long, and like a very springy strap'.

I cannot disagree more strongly than with this form of ritualism. Ritual can be a very useful thing, but this would seem to be a deliberate attempt on the part of two irresponsible young women to humiliate a boy and make him feel thoroughly miserable and girlish.

[That is, of course, a statement of Wildman’s personal view.]

[PC 15.i.92]

11)  The InternationalRetentionistGazette (April 1954)

[A friend writes about Dress and Discipline, specifically about shorts. Also:]

There is a tendency on the part of some individuals to want to dress children unsuitably. I remember reading of one woman who had 2 sons aged respectively 16 and 12, who were weekly boarders at their school. When they came home for the weekend she had them change from their normal school grey trousers or shorts into kilts, with ankle socks and sandals. Under the kilts they wore green rayon girls’ knickers, instead of the normal underpants boys wear.

[P.C. 15.i.49 (65)]

I hope my readers have found these extracts of some interest. Some of the clothing described, such as the mackintosh, is not really related to the 'petticoat' dress with which this publication deals, but overall Peter Farrer has compiled a very significant addition to the literature on dress discipline, and I thank him for allowing me to publish it. If readers have any comments to make, please write to me, and your remarks may be published as an addendum to this article.
Susan MacDonald