William Willett (August 10, 1856 - March 4, 1915) is the inventor of Daylight saving time. He was born in Farnham, Surrey and educated at Marylebone Grammar 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, noteably in Chelsea. He lived most of his life in Chislehurst, Kent, where, it is said, after riding 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. August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... March 4 is the 63rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (64th in leap years). ... 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Daylight saving time (also called DST, or Summer Time) is the portion of the year in which a regions local time is advanced by (usually) one hour from its standard official time. ... Greater London and the Regions of England. ... Chelsea can be: A neighbourhood in London, see: Chelsea, London A borough in London, see: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea A neighborhood in New York City, see: Chelsea, Manhattan A town in Alabama, see: Chelsea, Alabama A town in Maine, see: Chelsea, Maine A city in Massachusetts, see: Chelsea... Petts Wood is a place in the London Borough of Bromley. ...

This was not the first time that the idea of adapting to daylight hours had been mooted, however. Benjamin Franklin had done so in 1784 in a light-hearted letter published in the Journal of Paris [1] (http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/franklin3.html). Although Franklin's facetious suggestion was simply that people should get up earlier in summer, he is usually attributed as the inventor of DST while Willett is often ignored. Franklin, an engraving from a painting by Duplessis Dr. Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was an American printer, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, librarian, diplomat, and inventor. ... 1784 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

Using his own financial resources, in 1907 William published a pamphlet The Waste of Daylight [2] (http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/willett.html). 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 pounds 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. 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Through vigorous campaigning by 1908 Willet 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 also promoted it for a time (see "A Silent Toast to William Willett" by Winston S. Churchill, Pictorial Weekly, 1934)[3] (http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=266), 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 May 17, 1916 and the clocks were advanced by an hour on the following Sunday, May 21 — enacted as a wartime production-boosting device under the Defence of the Realm Act. It was subsequently adopted in many other countries. 1908 is a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Professor Robert Pearce was educated at Grammar Schools in Birmingham, Bristol and Gloucester before studying law at Pembroke College, Oxford University. ... The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was a British statesman, best known as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War II. At various times an author, soldier, journalist, and politician, Churchill is generally regarded as... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Coal is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground either by underground mining, open-pit mining or strip mining. ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in Britain in August 1914, during the early weeks of World War I. It gave the government wide-ranging powers during the war period, such as censorship and the power to requisition buildings or land needed for the war effort. ...

William Willett junior did not live to see daylight saving become law, he died of influenza in 1915 at the age of 58. Negatively stained flu virions. ...

References

• Maria Box, Encyclopedia Britannica, (1968 ed.).
• Donald Carle, British Time, (London: Crosby Lockwood, 1947).
• D. Prout, Victorian Society Annual, (1989), 217-46.
• Andrew Saint, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

See also, "Time for a change . . .", an unsigned article in Bury Free Press Online (a South London community newspaper)[4] (http://www2.buryfreepress.co.uk/past/time/time.html).