Directly to the skirting board? Here, such fittings were screwed first to a wooden (usually pine) mounting block (about 3/4" thick) and then to the skirting board or wall.
Ditto here when fixing directly to a plastered wall. For skirting board mounting, I've seen it done both with and without a pattress.
These mounting blocks have become available again for period homes and renovations,
Ditto here, along with reproduction brass tumbler light switches at very high prices. I had somebody a couple of years ago who asked about refitting a whole house with these plus matching brass BS1363 sockets thoughout. That was until she heard how much it was going to cost!
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It's also the same with the neutral and earth pins of many of the UK 13A plugs. I would presume there would also be round pin plugs so constructed.
There were different designs. In some (e.g. MK) the thread on the end of the pin goes through the base of the plug and has a flat nut inside to secure it to the plug body, then the terminal nut went on top of that.
On other designs though, the pins with terminal were an all-in-one design with just dropped into place through the plug body and, as you say, were held in place by the plug's top cover.
