Following the Great Fire of London (1666) fire insurance boomed and insurance companies raised their own brigades of part-time firemen. Immediately, the value of a distinctive uniform was understood, to encourage an esprit de corps and promote firefighters’ public image. Many companies issued their men with livery caps, coats, waistcoats and breeches resembling regular dress but in a designated colour like blue, green or crimson. The prominent metal company badge on the left arm was very important, signifying the integrity of both the wearer and the insurance company he represented, while metal or wooden batons bearing company insignia demonstrated his authority. By the late 1700s some were wearing crested leather helmets, a wide brim extending into a neck-flap: early protective work wear.

Early 19th-century fire crews typically wore brightly coloured livery suits with stockings, garters and leather top-boots, their full-skirted frock coats echoing the picturesque uniforms of Thames watermen (often part-time firemen). However, independent insurance fire brigades were now passing to centralised control, inspiring more sober, standardised uniforms. The first combined brigade was the Edinburgh Fire Engine Establishment (1824), whose superintendent, James Braidwood, introduced a functional, more modern uniform of dark blue jackets, canvas trousers, and hardened leather crested helmets with hind flaps.

In 1833, when Metropolitan insurance companies merged into the London Fire Engine Establishment, individual company uniforms were discontinued and crews rekitted in plain grey coats and trousers with black leather helmets and leather Wellington-style boots. Volunteer brigades were also formed by railway companies, factories and other workplaces, their uniforms following suit, with some variations. In 1866 the London FEE became the Metropolitan Fire Brigade and its leader, Massey Shaw, introduced the distinctive brass helmet of the Parisian Sapeurs-Pompiers, its prominent crest deflecting falling objects, its front peak and curved tail protecting face and neck. Many provincial brigades adopted these brass helmets, but by the 1890s nickel-plated ‘Merryweather’ helmets were more common.

The Victorian firefighter’s uniform also comprised a single- or double-breasted tunic and matching trousers, often of densely woven woollen Melton cloth. Tunic buttons were commonly ornamented with crossed hatchets and a helmet or torch, a cloth badge on breast or arm denoting the brigade and sometimes displaying the fireman’s number. Blue and green uniforms were worn until the 1880s when blue became standard, teamed with a broad leather brass-buckled belt and high leather boots. Uniforms of the early 1900s retained many of these elements, including the dark blue double-breasted metal-buttoned tunic, still worn in 1950. From the mid-1930s, the traditional metal ‘Merryweather’ helmet was superseded by the black ‘Cromwell’, made of compressed cork. The Auxiliary Fire Service, formed in 1938 as war loomed, gave its recruits uniforms, waterproof leggings, rubber boots and steel helmets.