“Everyone appreciates the long light evenings. Everyone laments their shrinkage as Autumn approaches, and nearly everyone has given utterance to a regret that the clear bright light of early morning, during Spring and Summer months, is so seldom seen or used. Nevertheless, Standard time remains so fixed, that for nearly half the year the sun shines for several hours each day, while we are asleep, and is rapidly nearing the horizon when we reach home after the work of the day is over. There then remains only a brief spell of declining daylight in which to spend the short period of leisure at our disposal. Now, if one of the hours of sunlight wasted in the morning could be added to the end of the day, many advantages would be gained by all, and especially by those who would spend in the open air, whatever time they might have at their disposal after the duties of the day have been discharged.”

The Waste of Daylight, William Willett (1907)

Today, on the last day of summer time, K and I went for a walk at the lake before an evening of healthy cooking and watching Elizabeth.

Tomorrow when we are all asleep William Willett’s dream of the Daylight Savings Bill happens again and we return to winter time. Willett financed the pamphlet himself and managed to get the support of a young Winston Churchill. With the start of the First World War and the need to save coal his ideas were reviewed again and finally introduced when it was realised that Germany had started daylight saving in an attempt to increased their hours of production during the war.

So, next year when BST arrives and the longer evenings are back remember to thank William Willett and make sure, “that the clear bright light of early morning, during Spring and Summer months, is so seldom seen or used” doesn’t happen to you.