Whether it's because you've heard the music of Coldplay or because he married a famous actress, who then went on to give birth to a piece of fruit, most people know who Chris Martin is. Not a lot of people know however, that it's because of Chris’ great-great-grandfather, that all of our clocks went back by an hour today.
William Willett, was a builder and resident of Petts Wood, Bromley, had long been a campaigner that daylight saving time be introduced. He unfortunately died from influenza in 1915 aged 58, before his proposal was introduced and would never know the impact that it would have on how widespread its use would become.
The original idea came about in 1907 when it struck him that most people actually slept for the first few hours of daylight. As it would be today, getting everyone to wake up an hour earlier, was a nigh on impossible task so the next best bet was to trick them into doing so!
In his work as a builder, he had already gained a reputation for building high quality housing and the idea came to him as he was riding through Petts Wood. He noticed that many of the houses still had their blinds down, despite the sunshine. It irked him so much, that he distributed a pamphlet titled ‘The Waste of Daylight’. Within a year from its publication in 1907, he had gained support from a number of members of parliament, including a young Winston Churchill. Despite all of its perceived advantages, the idea was not followed up.
In fact it was Germany who was the first to implement daylight saving...as a way of increasing productivity in the munitions trade. The UK quickly realised that they had dropped the ball on the issue and followed suit in May of 1916. A little over a year after William’s death.
William Willett is commemorated in Petts Wood by a memorial sundial, which is set permanently to daylight saving time.
Rob Denholm
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