British Summertime was introduced to Britain on Sunday 21st May 1916, after a bill was passed in Parliament on 17th May 1916.

William Willett, who lived in Bromley, and was a builder by profession, had been promoting the idea of daylight saving to make the most of the daylight from April to September from 1907. Whilst he was not the first person to have the idea, he spent a lot of time trying to get the idea taken up in Great Britain.  When reading local papers of the late 1900s and early 1910s you will often see letters from William Willett promoting his ideas.

It was not until World War One, when it became vital to save coal, the main fuel for both industry and households, that the idea was passed by Parliament, as a part of the Defence of the Realm Act (often referred to as DORA).  Ironically, Germany also implemented Daylight Saving in April 1916.

William Willett never saw his idea finally get taken up, as he had died in March 1915, over a year before the implementation.  William Willett is remembered in Petts Wood, where there is a memorial sundial and the Daylight Inn is named in his honour.

An editorial in the Sevenoaks edition of the Kent Messenger on 20th May 1916, reminds its readers that if they forget to put their clocks on an hour, they will arrive at church an hour late for the service and may miss the service altogether, or perhaps be too late for the collection.

It goes on to explain that the aim of the act is to reduce the number of hours that artificial lighting is needed and so save a very large amount of coal that can be used elsewhere for the war effort.