SUMMER TIME INVENTOR - Marques Camden (left) and Mrs Willett,

widow of Mr William Willett, at the unveiling of a sundial in memory

of Mr Willett at Chislehurst, Kent, on Saturday.

 

The William Willett memorial, was erected in Petts Wood, Chislehurst, Kent. The memorial takes the form of a sundial which, naturally, shows Summer Time. The motto is horas non numero nisi aestivas - I only count the Summer hours.

 

PERIODS OF DEVIATION

 

Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph - 18th November 1939

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WINTER WILL BE SHORTEST ON RECORD

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Black-out an Hour Earlier.

 

SUMMIER-TIME

            Described as one of the few good things to have come out of the last war, ends to-day after six weeks' extension as a result of this war.

It was due to have ended on October 8, but shortly after the outbreak of hostilities the Home Office was urged from several quarters to continue it a little longer to ease the black-out and to save fuel.

            The period during which normal "winter-time" will operate will probably be the shortest since the inception of daylight saving.

 

EARLIER NEXT YEAR ?

Sir John Anderson has already thrown out a hint that "summer-time" may be introduced earlier than usual next year.

            But if it is going to be a record short winter it is certainly going to be a dark one. The reversion to true time will mean that suddenly the black-out will descend on us an hour earlier.

            However, to institute "summer-time" for the duration, as has been urged by some interests. would have many drawbacks to counterbalance the rather slight advantage gained by shopkeepers and a few others.

Our hours of winter daylight are so brief that for some weeks it would merely mean an hour's darkness at the beginning of the working day instead of at the end.

 

OBJECTORS

            There are still some who object to "summer-time," but few now feel as strongly about it as the woman who left the Stoke Goldington (Bucks.) Church £600 providing that its services were held by "the true time of the clock."

            A store-man who was equally antagonistic was discharged from his work because he  refused to start at what he said was 11 p.m. Sunday, though actually it was midnight by summer-time.

            His claim for public assistance was dismissed as it was found he had lost his job through misconduct.

 

WILLIAM WILLETT

            William Willett, the Chelsea builder, who some 33 years ago was the first to urge the general observance of "summer-time," was not the first to think of changing the clock to lengthen the day. king Edward VII., finding the days too short, arranged for the clocks of Sandringham to be kept thirty minutes fast all the year round, and so gained more time for shooting. This custom is still kept up at Sandringham, and consequently the clocks there have to be put back only thirty minutes to-day in-stead of an hour.

 

In later years the practice was also observed at Windsor and Balmoral Castle. The custom of Sandringham time continued after the death of Edward VII, through the reign of his son King George V. However, because of the confusions that the time difference caused, which were heightened during George's final hours, King Edward VIII abolished the tradition during his brief reign. Neither King George VI nor Queen Elizabeth II chose to restore the tradition.

 

In the summers of 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War, Britain was two hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time (BDST). To bring this about, the clocks were not put back by an hour at the end of summer in 1940; in subsequent years, clocks continued to be advanced by one hour each spring and put back by an hour each autumn until July 1945. The clocks were brought back in line with GMT at the end of summer in 1945. In 1947, due to severe fuel shortages, clocks were advanced by one hour on two occasions during the spring, and put back by one hour on two occasions during the autumn, meaning that Britain was back on BDST during that summer

 

An inquiry during the winter of 1959–60, in which 180 national organisations were consulted, revealed a slight preference for a change to all-year GMT+1, but instead the length of summer time was extended as a trial A further inquiry during 1966–67 led the government of Harold Wilson to introduce the British Standard Time experiment, with Britain remaining on GMT+1 throughout the year. This took place between 27 October 1968 and 31 October 1971, when there was a reversion to the previous arrangement.

 

Analysis of accident data for the first two years of the experiment, published by HMSO in October 1970, indicated that while there had been an increase in casualties in the morning, there had been a substantially greater decrease in casualties in the evening, with a total of around 2,500 fewer people killed and seriously injured during the first two winters of the experiment, at a time when about 1,000 people a day were killed or injured on the roads. However, the period coincided with the introduction of drink-driving legislation; the estimates were later modified downwards in 1989.

 

The trial was the subject of a House of Commons debate on 2 December 1970 when, on a free vote, the House of Commons voted by 366 to 81 votes to end the experiment.

 

The current arrangement is now defined by the Summer Time Order 2002 which defines BST as "... the period beginning at one o'clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the last Sunday in March and ending at one o'clock, Greenwich mean time, in the morning of the last Sunday in October." This period was stipulated by a directive of the European Parliament which required European countries to implement a common summer time (as originally introduced in 1997)

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Acknowledgement -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Summer_Time