Everything about William Willett totally explained
William Willett (
10 August 1856 –
4 March 1915), is the inventor of
daylight saving time.
Biography
Willett was born in
Farnham, Surrey, in the
United Kingdom, and educated at the
Philological School. After some commercial experience, he entered his father's building business, Willett Building Services. Between them they created a reputation for "Willett built" quality houses in choice parts of
London and the south, including
Chelsea and
Hove. He lived most of his life in
Chislehurst,
Kent, where, it's said, after riding his horse in
Petts Wood near his home early one summer morning and noticing how many blinds were still down, the idea for daylight saving time first occurred to him.
This wasn't the first time that the idea of adapting to daylight hours had been mooted, however. It was common practice in the ancient world, and
Benjamin Franklin resurrected the idea in a light-hearted 1784 satire. Although Franklin's facetious suggestion was simply that people should get up earlier in summer, he's often erroneously attributed as the inventor of DST while Willett is often ignored.
Using his own financial resources, in
1907 William published a pamphlet "The Waste of Daylight" In it he proposed that the clocks should be advanced by 80 minutes in the summer. The evenings would then remain light for longer, increasing daylight recreation time and also saving ₤2.5 million in lighting costs. He suggested that the clocks should be advanced by 20 minutes at a time at 2 am on successive Sundays in April and be retarded by the same amount on Sundays in September.
Through vigorous campaigning, by
1908 Willett had managed to gain the support of an
MP,
Robert Pearce, who made several unsuccessful attempts to get it passed into law. A young
Winston Churchill promoted it for a time, and the idea was examined again by a parliamentary select committee in
1909 but again nothing was done. The outbreak of the
First World War made the issue more important primarily because of the need to save
coal.
Germany had already introduced the scheme when the bill was finally passed in Britain on
17 May 1916 and the clocks were advanced by an hour on the following Sunday,
21 May, enacted as a wartime production-boosting device under the
Defense of the Realm Act. It was subsequently adopted in many other countries.
William Willett didn't live to see daylight saving become law, as he died of
influenza in 1915 at the age of 58. He is commemorated in
Petts Wood by a memorial
sundial, set permanently to daylight saving time. The
Daylight Inn in Petts Wood is also named in his honor. His house in the
London Borough of Bromley is marked with a
blue plaque.
Willett is the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay frontman
Chris Martin.
Further Information
Get more info on 'William Willett'.
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