Hansard, The Record of the UK Parliament, reports for 17 May 1916:
HC Deb 17 May 1916 vol 82 cc1572-6181572
§ Message received to attend the Lords Commissioners.
§ The House went, and, having returned,
reported the Royal Assent to,
1. Local Government (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1916.
2. Courts (Emergency Powers) (Amendment) Act, 1916.
3. Summer Time Act, 1916.
4. Edinburgh Corporation Order Confirmation Act, 1916.
5. Gas Orders Confirmation Act, 1916.
6. Burnley Corporation Act, 1916.
7. Weston-Super-Mare Grand Pier Act, 1916.
Hansard, HC Deb 17 May 1916 vol 82 cc1572-618
The Summer Time Act had long been advocated by William Willett. He did not live to see his proposal implemented having died in March 1915. The idea had been adopted by many other countries including Germany and it was only the demands of wartime that moved the British from ridiculing the idea to adopting it.
On the 8th of May 1916 the Commons voted 170 to 2 in favour of the motion:
Resolved, “That, in view especially of the economy in fuel and its transport that would be effected by shortening the hours of artificial lighting, this House would welcome a measure for the advancement of clock time by one hour during the summer months of this year.”
Hansard, HC Deb 08 May 1916 vol 82 cc371
The story of the campaign for British legislation is well documented on History Today.
One Hundred years later we are today currently on “British Summer Time” and many relatives and descendants of William Willett tell their young children about William Willett and his campaign twice a year as the clocks go forward in spring and go back in autumn (“Spring forward, Fall back”).
