Don’t forget the clocks go forward this Sunday 28th March 2010.

First introduced in April 1916 it has been a prelude to Summer ever since. The aim is to ensure that afternoons have more daylight and mornings less.

Daylight savings was the brainchild of William Willett (1857 – 1915), who was a London builder living in Petts Wood in Kent. In 1907 he circulated a pamphlet to Members of Parliament, town councils and businesses. He pointed out that for nearly half the year the sun shines  for several hours each day while we are asleep, and is rapidly nearing the horizon, having already passed its western limit, when we reach home from work before it is over.

His proposal was to improve health and happiness by advancing the clocks twenty minutes on each of four Sundays in April, and by reversing this idea by the same amount on four Sundays in September. He said that it would not only improve health and happiness but it would save the country £2 .5 million pounds. Although the scheme was ridiculed and greatly opposed  the Daylight Saving Bill was introduced in 1909.

Every year there are calls to abandon the scheme but policitians are less pioneering today than they were back in 1909.

Don’t forget to adjust your clocks!