When were clocks first put forward in GB?

Question

Can anyone answer this question, preferably with pointing towards a link where I can read it up in more detail?

Thank you

McGonagall

Answer 1

I have found a site that gives you the history of who and why we change the clocks.

The info below comes from that website.

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2007 marks 100 years since British Summer Time was first proposed. Changing the clocks for summer time is now an annual ritual in Britain and countries around the world. But why change the clocks, which way should they go, and whose idea was it in the first place?

Find out more at a free special exhibition at the Royal Observatory opening on 23 March and running until the end of October – to coincide with the changing of the clocks.

Visitor information
Venue: Special Exhibitions Space, Meridian Building, Royal Observatory
Dates: 23 March–October 2007
Admission: Free, 10.00–17.00 daily

The idea of British Summer Time (BST), also known as Daylight Saving Time, was first proposed by a keen horse-rider, William Willett, who was incensed at the 'waste' of useful daylight first thing in the morning, during summer. Though the sun had been up for hours during his rides through the local woods in Chislehurst and Petts Wood, people were still asleep in bed.

In 1907 he published a pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight, outlining plans to encourage people out of bed earlier in summer by changing the time on the nation’s clocks. He spent the rest of his life fighting to get acceptance of his time-shifting scheme. He died in 1915 with the Government still refusing to back BST. But the following year, Germany introduced the system. Britain followed in May 1916, and we have been 'changing the clocks' ever since.

Britain first adopted William Willett's Daylight Saving Time scheme in 1916, a few weeks after Germany. For years, the British Government had refused to introduce Daylight Saving Time, but by then, Britain and Germany were fighting each other in the First World War (1914-18), and any system that could save fuel and money was worth trying. The Summer Time Act of 1916 was quickly passed by Parliament and the first day of British Summer Time, 21 May 1916, was widely reported in the press.

Clocks and watches were very different from those we use today. Many clocks could not have their hands turned backwards without breaking the mechanism. Instead, owners had to put the clock forward by 11 hours when Summer Time came to an end. The Home Office put out special posters telling people how to reset their clocks to GMT, and national newspapers also gave advice.

William Willett, the original architect of the Summer Time scheme, died in 1915. By the 1920s, however, he was becoming a posthumous hero, as more and more people backed his daylight-saving plan. Public money was raised to buy and preserve Petts Wood. This was partly to act as a living memorial to Willett, but mostly as local residents wanted to prevent building development encroaching on their green spaces. A sundial – keeping British Summer Time, not Greenwich Mean Time – was erected there in a clearing.

Willett had become an icon of daylight. A portrait was painted; a bronze bust was sculpted; a pub was named in his memory, and in 1931 a wax figure was unveiled at Madame Tussaud’s in London. But not everybody had come round to Willett's way of thinking: over the subsequent years, dissenting voices were heard.
In 1968, the clocks went forward as usual in March, but in the autumn, they did not return to Greenwich Mean Time. Britain had entered a three-year experiment, confusingly called British Standard Time, and stayed one hour ahead of Greenwich until 1971.

This was not the first experiment to shift the clocks in winter. In the Second World War (1939-45), Britain had adopted Double British Summer Time, with the clocks one hour ahead of Greenwich in winter and two hours ahead in summer.

When the British Standard Time experiment ended, the Home Office carried out an exhaustive review to find out whether it had been successful. The answer was both yes and no. There were ‘pros and cons’ to having the clocks forward and, on balance, the Government decided to return to the original British Summer Time.

Within a few years of its introduction, most countries reasonably north or south of the equator had adopted Daylight Saving Time. But it has been controversial since the day William Willett first proposed it back in 1907, following his rural rides through Petts Wood.

After a century of daylight saving, we still cannot agree on whether it is a good thing or not. When proposals to extend the system are occasionally made in Parliament, protest soon comes from those affected by its disadvantages. Daylight Saving Time tries to treat a complex network of symptoms with one solution. But not everybody sees it as a cure. So the debate continues.

Answer 2

British Summer Time started in 1916 during the First (not Second!) World War

Answer 3

It was in 1940 so that farmers could take advantage of longer daylight hours - although I've never quite understood exactly how they fathom that one out! There's only so many hours of daylight in a day, so what real difference does it make by pretending it's seven o'clock in the morning when it's really only six ! ! !

Answer 4

Went forward at 0100 on Sunday 25th March.

Answer 5

dont know the exact date but it was something to do with the second world war.!! more daylight for farmers to produce being the reason i believe.

hope this helps.

Answer 6

This link explains things.

Answer 7

last weekend in march and go back last weekend in october. don`t know when it started first.

Answer 8

About one oclock last night!

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

Answer 10

grinwish u idiot