The History of clocks being changed.

 The History of clocks being changed.

By Barbara Thomas

In 1905 a British man named William Willett published a leaflet to encourage people to make the most of the early morning sunlight.

He suggested bringing the clocks forward each Sunday in April then turning them back in September.

William Willett was Born on the 10th of August 1856 in Farnham Surrey.

His occupation was a master builder he inherited his father's business equivalent to today's Wimpy Houses.

Willett Builders built houses in choice parts of London and the South including Chelsea and Hove plus Derwent house.

He lived most of his life in Chislehurst Kent and where he would be found in the early hours of the morning on horseback riding through Petts Wood.

Near his home early one summer morning he was noticing how many blinds were still down. This is where the idea for daylight saving time 1^st occurred to him.

He used his own financial resources and published a pamphlet

called,  “The waste of daylight” In it he proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in four incremental steps during the month of April and reverse the same in September. The evenings would then remain lighter for longer, increasing daylight recreation and work time and also saving £2.5 million pounds in lighting costs.

William suggested that the clocks should be advanced by 20 minutes at a time at 2 a.m. on successive Sundays in April and to be reversed in September.

In1908 Willett through vigorous campaigning managed to get the support of a Member of Parliament namely Robert Pearce MP who had also made some unsuccessful attempts to get a bill passed by law. A very young Winston Churchill promoted it at the time and the idea was examined again by a Select Parliamentary Committee in 1909

Unfortunately, his idea was never taken seriously, and the idea was thrown out.

Step forward approximately to 1916 during World War One and the issue of more daylight became important. The Germans decided then to implement the changing of clocks due to the need to save coal.

A bill was finally passed in Parliament the British could also implement what was called “summer time” on 17th May 1916.

And the clocks were advanced by 1 hour on the following Sunday 21^st May 1916 enacting as a war-time production boosting device under the Defence of the Realm Act, it was subsequently adopted in many other countries apart from the USA.

Unfortunately, William Willett did not live to see his daylight saving become law as he died of influenza in 1915 at the age of 58.

He is commemorated in Petts Wood Kent by a memorial sundial set permanently to daylight saving time.

The Daylight Inn in Petts Wood is named in his honour also there is a road named after him. There is also a blue plaque outside William’s house in Chislehurst.

William Willett is buried in St Nicholas churchyard, Chislehurst and a family memorial stands in the church at St Wulfran’s Church, Ovingdean in Brighton and Hove.

Also, a Freemason he was initiated in Camden Place Lodge on the 1^{st of} November 1906.

William Willett was the grandfather of John Willett the translator

(BERTOLT BRECHT) a German theatre practitioner playwright and poet.

His Great Great Grandson is Coldplay singer Chris Martin

Popular myths claim that adjusting the clock would benefit the farmers and improve road safety for early morning commuters,

As you can see from the above the practice goes back well over 100 years.

Although in 1968 clocks went forward as usual in March they were not reversed until October 1971.

The BST Act was created in 1972 which started the tradition finally of changing the clocks in Late March; Spring forward ~ fall back.

Many were not happy with this as Muslims, Jewish and other faiths followed their own calendars; which is their choice.

 

Copyright Barbara Thomas