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Admiral Twiss describes Royal Navy uniforms

Transcript: "Sailors' uniform has not altered very much to look at over the years. There have been bell-bottom trousers, the blue serge jacket on the top, well not a jacket, it’s called a jumper, and a sailor’s collar with a flannel underneath and a cap and a cap ribbon. In the 1920s and later we used to have two kinds of cap. Sailors and sailor’s officers wore blue top caps in the winter and white top caps in the summer and white top caps overseas in tropical areas. A sailor’s kit was a standard kit and was mustered at regular intervals just to make sure that he had the right number of boots, socks, two proper suits and the right number of flannels, jumpers, Dickies and whatever it was. He had a housewife, a husif, with a needle, cotton and thread in it and proper decent shoes. It was looked at to make sure it was in good order and he got an allowance for it. He had what was called a kit upkeep allowance to keep this kit going and when he travelled he put it in a kit bag and he took his hammock with his bedding in it and he lashed it up and carried that with him. When the sailor moved round the world he had a kit bag and the hammock."

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