Bless his/her little cotton socks

A term of endearment, usually directed towards children that dates from the late 19th/early 20th century. It is simply another form of “bless his/her little heart”. There is however, a ridiculous folk etymology circulating on the Internet that the cotton socks referred to are not socks made of cotton, but Cotton’s socks and that the Cotton in question is George Edward Lynch Cotton, the educator and clergyman (1813-1866). After graduating from Cambridge in 1836, Cotton taught at Rugby School before becoming headmaster of Marlborough in 1852. In 1858, he accepted the appointment of Bishop of Calcutta and his charity work in India, or so the story goes, prompted women all over Britain to knit socks for Indian children because Cotton believed that warm socks helped children overcome many of their ailments. The folk etymology goes on to say thousands of parcels of knitted socks were packed and shipped off to India, marked as “Cotton’s Socks for Blessing” or “Socks for Cotton’s Blessing”! One cannot help but admire the ingenuity of people who invent stories like this but the sad fact of the matter is that so many people believe them. Bishop Cotton tragically drowned in the river Ganges in 1866 and was no doubt a good man. He deserves to be remembered for much more than a false story linking his name to a common English expression.