Demob suit

[1][dubious – discuss] Soldiers had received a set of civilian clothes on demobilisation at the end of the First World War.

One reported that he rarely wore his to work as "both the pattern and the hue made it difficult to hide its patriotic origins".

[16] Nonetheless, the suits were often the first that a man had owned and they remained in use for many years after the end of the war, being brought out whenever formal wear was required, such as at christenings or weddings.

Spivs (small time criminals dealing in illicit goods) lurked outside distribution centres and offered men £10 for each set of clothes, which some accepted.

[6] Official British Ministry of Information pictures of the demobilisation clothing depot, Olympia, London: J.B. Priestley titled his 1945 novel about three returning servicemen facing the challenges of post-war life, Three Men In New Suits.

[17] Anthony Powell, who had a successful military career during the war and may have gone through the process himself, used a scene set in the demob centre at Olympia as the conclusion to his 1968 novel The Military Philosophers, "Rank on rank, as far as the eye could scan, hung flannel trousers and tweed coats, drab mackintoshes and grey suits with a white line running through the material", asking whether the massed ranks of empty coats on their hangers somehow symbolised the dead.

[18] The demob suit became a popular subject in British comedy after the Second World War as a topic to which millions of people could relate.

[20] Frankie Howerd, one of a whole generation of British comedians who started their career immediately after demobilisation, performed in a badly fitting demob suit, probably because he had nothing else to wear.