England's Home Uniform 1954 to 1960

[From england-direct.com, the official F.A. Online Store]

Notes

This lightweight v-necked shirt, made by Umbro, made its first appearance against Wales in the second match of the 1954-55 season, after their first game, in Belfast, had seen the final appearance of the short-sleeved collared shirt worn at the 1954 World Cup.  The new shirt's virtues were simplicity and economy; it was nothing more than a white T-shirt with a badge on it.  Whilst it was not particularly attractive, the new uniform served notice that England had learnt some lessons from their encounters with Hungary during the preceding season.  They had also had to endure two World Cups in the sunnier climes of Brazil and Switzerland, in bulky attire more suited to the English winter.  England were about to emerge from splendid isolation into the modern footballing world.

The shorts and stockings remained navy blue, but the shorts were much shorter and tighter-fitting than the baggy variety worn previously.  At first, the stockings were the same as the previous uniform, with a broad white band at the top.  A red version of the white-topped stockings continued to be worn whenever England faced a team who also wore blue stockings, as Northern Ireland did at the time.  They also changed to red when facing a team in black stockings, which meant they always wore red against Scotland and had to change in two of their three British Championship fixtures each season.  The colour of the stockings was also coordinated with the colour of the numbers on the back of the shirt, so when England wore navy blue socks, the numbers on the back of their shirts were navy and when they wore red socks, they were paired with red numbers.  However, when they travelled abroad, on their end-of-season tours, they made no such concessions, presumably to minimise the amount of luggage they had to take with them. 

This dilemma, together with a desire to switch to a lighter sock, probably brought about a change in England's stockings at the beginning of the 1957-58 season.  A new red pair was introduced, incorporating a white band around the calf, together with a second-choice navy blue equivalent.  Unlike nowadays, where change colours have to be aired for the replica-buying public, in the 1950s, teams tried to appear in their first-choice colours in every single game. In fact, England went for three years (1956-59) without having to change to a different shirt. Imagine what a nightmare that would be for Umbro in the 21st century!

The 1957 sock design lived on beyond the Umbro contract and was paired with the Bukta England shirt on many occasions right up until 1963.  It could even be found at the odd England training session in 1966. They did still occasionally wear different sock designs. Against France, the month after the Welsh game, England wore plain white stockings and a new white-sock design, with a red and a blue stripe around the calf was worn on the odd occasion towards the end of the Umbro contract, even making a further appearance with the new Bukta uniform, against Scotland in 1961.

England's shirts continued to be adorned with the Three Lions emblem, embroidered onto the white t-shirts together with the opponents' name in a crescent and the year, or, in the case of the British Championship fixtures, the season.  As these patches were prepared separately to be added to the shirts, the potential was there for them not to arrive together at the designated location.  England played the first half against France, in Paris in 1955, without their emblems, but they miraculously appeared in their rightful place for the second half.  Not for the last time, travelling abroad meant that the England uniform was susceptible to 'wardrobe malfunction'.

This is pure speculation, but the Paris incident presumably led to the practice being scrapped for the 1955-56 season.  However, it was revived again after a season's absence, though the 1958 World Cup was excluded from the practice, with the potential for games to be organised at short notice, with not enough time to get the appropriate emblems to Sweden. How ironic that the only occasions when England were wearing uniforms more than once, were in the most important of all competitions, whilst for home friendlies, they always got nice new uniforms.

The crescents were worn with the emblem right up until the end of the Umbro contract at the end of the 1959-60 season.  They were successfully applied for England's end-of-season trip to the Americas in 1959, but, strangely, did not appear for the British Championship fixture with Scotland in April of the same year.  England's trip to Budapest in May 1960 was, thus, the last occasion that the opponents' name appeared on the shirt until the day of David Beckham's free-kick heroics in 2001.
 

Matches in Which England Wore the 1954 Home White Shirt
No.	Date	Opposition	Venue	Type	F	A	Result	H.T.
Please note, between 1954 and 1957, England's first choice stockings were navy blue with white tops.
292	10-Nov-1954	Wales	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	3	2	HW	[0-1]
294	02-Apr-1955	Scotland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	7	2	HW	[4-1]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Scotland.
295	15-May-1955	France	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Colombes, Paris	F	0	1	AL	[0-1]
England wore plain white shirts in the first half.
296	18-May-1955	Spain	El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid	F	1	1	AD	[1-0]
297	22-May-1955	Portugal	Estádio do Futebol Clube do Porto, Oporto	F	1	3	AL	[1-1]
298	02-Oct-1955	Denmark	Idrćtsparken, Křbenhavn	F	5	1	AW	[3-0]
299	22-Oct-1955	Wales	Ninian Park, Cardiff	BC	1	2	AL	[0-2]
300	02-Nov-1955	Northern Ireland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	3	0	HW	[0-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Northern Ireland.
301	30-Nov-1955	Spain	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	4	1	HW	[2-0]
302	14-Apr-1956	Scotland	Hampden Park, Mount Florida, Glasgow	BC	1	1	AD	[0-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Scotland.
303	09-May-1956	Brazil	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	4	2	HW	[2-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Brazil.
304	16-May-1956	Sweden	Rĺsunda Stadion, Solna	F	0	0	AD	[0-0]
305	20-May-1956	Finland	Olympiastadion, Helsinki	F	5	1	AW	[3-1]
307	06-Oct-1956	Northern Ireland	Windsor Park, Belfast	BC	1	1	AD	[1-1]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Northern Ireland.
308	14-Nov-1956	Wales	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	3	1	HW	[0-1]
309	28-Nov-1956	Yugoslavia	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	3	0	HW	[1-0]
310	05-Dec-1956	Denmark	Molineux Ground, Wolverhampton	WCP	5	2	HW	[2-1]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with the 1954 red away change stockings--against Denmark.
311	06-Apr-1957	Scotland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	2	1	HW	[0-1]
312	08-May-1957	Republic of Ireland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	WCP	5	1	HW	[4-0]
313	15-May-1957	Denmark	Idrćtsparken, Křbenhavn	WCP	4	1	AW	[1-1]
314	19-May-1957	Republic of Ireland	Dalymount Park, Dublin	WCP	1	1	AD	[0-1]
Please note, between 1957 and 1961, England's first choice stockings were red with a white band around the calf.
315	19-Oct-1957	Wales	Ninian Park, Cardiff	BC	4	0	AW	[2-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts and stockings with a white band around the calf--against Wales.
316	06-Nov-1957	Northern Ireland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	2	3	HL	[0-1]
317	27-Nov-1957	France	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	4	0	HW	[3-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with plain white stockings--against France.
318	19-Apr-1958	Scotland	Hampden Park, Mount Florida, Glasgow	BC	4	0	AW	[2-0]
319	07-May-1958	Portugal	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	2	1	HW	[1-0]
320	11-May-1958	Yugoslavia	Stadion J.N.A., Beograd	F	0	5	AL	[0-1]
321	18-May-1958	U.S.S.R.	Lenin Stadium, Moskva	F	1	1	AD	[1-0]
322	08-Jun-1958	U.S.S.R.	Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg, Sweden	WCF	2	2	ND	[0-1]
323	11-Jun-1958	Brazil	Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg, Sweden	WCF	0	0	ND	[0-0]
324	15-Jun-1958	Austria	Ryavallen Stadion, Boras, Sweden	WCF	2	2	ND	[0-1]
325	17-Jun-1958	U.S.S.R.	Nya Ullevi Stadion, Göteborg, Sweden	WCF	0	1	NL	[0-0]
326	04-Oct-1958	Northern Ireland	Windsor Park, Belfast	BC	3	3	AD	[1-1]
327	22-Oct-1958	U.S.S.R.	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	5	0	HW	[1-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts and stockings with a white band around the calf--against USSR.
328	26-Nov-1958	Wales	Villa Park, Birmingham	BC	2	2	HD	[1-1]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts and stockings with a white band around the calf--against Wales.
329	11-Apr-1959	Scotland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	1	0	HW	[0-0]
330	06-May-1959	Italy	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	2	2	HD	[2-0]
331	13-May-1959	Brazil	Estádio Jornalista Mário Filho, Maracană, Rio de Janeiro	F	0	2	AL	[0-2]
England wore the white home shirt and red stockings with the 1954 white away change shorts--against Brazil.
333	24-May-1959	Mexico	Estadio Olímpico Universitario, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico City	F	1	2	AL	[1-1]
England wore all white--the white home shirt with the 1954 white away change shorts and white stockings with a red and a blue stripe around the calf--against Mexico.
334	28-May-1959	U.S.A.	Wrigley Field, Los Angeles	F	8	1	AW	[1-1]
335	17-Oct-1959	Wales	Ninian Park, Cardiff	BC	1	1	AD	[1-0]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts and stockings with a white band around the calf--against Wales.
336	28-Oct-1959	Sweden	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	2	3	HL	[1-0]
337	18-Nov-1959	Northern Ireland	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	BC	2	1	HW	[1-0]
338	09-Apr-1960	Scotland	Hampden Park, Mount Florida, Glasgow	BC	1	1	AD	[0-1]
339	11-May-1960	Yugoslavia	Empire Stadium, Wembley, London	F	3	3	HD	[1-1]
England wore the white home shirt and blue shorts with white stockings with a red and a blue stripe around the calf--against Yugoslavia.
340	15-May-1960	Spain	El Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid	F	0	3	AL	[0-1]
England wore all white--the white home shirt with the 1954 white away change shorts and plain white stockings--against Spain.
341	22-May-1960	Hungary	Népstadion, Budapest	F	0	2	AL	[0-0]

Empire Stadium, Wembley, 9th of May 1956 - Tommy Taylor, England's dashing centre-forward whose life the Munich air crash took 21 months later, clashes with goalkeeper Gilmar in the 4-2 victory against Brazil, the first meeting between the two teams.  England changed to red socks against Brazil, despite there being no colour clash with their usual blue pair.

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