Why Daylight Saving Time Still Exists

Who invented Daylight Saving Time?

Modern Daylight Saving Time was proposed by William Willett, an English builder, in a 1907 self-published pamphlet called The Waste of Daylight. Willett was a passionate golfer in Petts Wood, Kent, and he hated finishing his evening rounds in fading light. He argued British clocks should jump forward in spring to give an extra hour of evening daylight in summer. He died in March 1915, one year before Britain finally adopted British Summer Time in May 1916. A small piece of trivia: Willett was the great-great-grandfather of Coldplay’s Chris Martin.

In this clip, a British presenter explains the Willett story while mock-complaining about the entitlement of “a freemason called William Willett who loved playing golf.”