Military uniforms have often influenced fashion and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) a dashing new style of army boot became the prototype of the functional rubber boots now known as Wellingtons or gumboots. During the 1790s British army officers wore ‘Hessians’ – knee-length boots of highly-polished calfskin, similar to riding boots but with a tassel-ornamented V-shape cut into the front. These were also favoured by stylish gentlemen, including fashion leader George (‘Beau’) Brummell. However, Hessians became difficult to wear with the lightweight trousers that increasingly replaced traditional breeches in the early 19th century. At some point during the early 1800s, Arthur Wellesley (then Viscount Wellington), had his shoemaker, Mr Hoby of St James’s Street, make his boots slightly lower and the tassel removed, to better accompany the new trousers. When he won his famous victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, Wellington (now a Duke) became a patriotic icon, and before long his new boots were being emulated in fashionable circles and called ‘Wellingtons’ in his name.

Leather Wellingtons remained in vogue for decades and continued to be worn by army officers, but fell from fashion by around 1860 with the introduction of new, shorter styles of boot. However, as we saw in DYAP February (on raincoats and mackintoshes), attempts to waterproof garments using rubber were advancing. In 1856, the North British Rubber Company manufactured Britain’s first rubber or ‘gum’ boots – a new form of footwear also patriotically named Wellingtons. Yet, despite the effectiveness of rubber Wellingtons, leather boots were still used in many Victorian occupations, from firemen to fishermen, and the new boots weren’t widely worn until World War One, when the NBR Company was commissioned to manufacture millions of pairs for soldiers’ standard winter kit, to help prevent ‘trench foot’. Afterwards, between the wars, gumboots or rubber Wellingtons were adopted in many industries and still enjoy a useful, even fashionable role in the modern wardrobe.

In the print edition
Read Jayne Shrimpton’s guide to unusual Victorian photos in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, available online at www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk