Time Observance

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I wrote the page where the legislative history behind the time

observance in Britain is posted. The owner of the site responded as

below.

 

I think that we should take him up on the advice to research a bit in

Liverpool itself. Anyone on this list from Liverpool?

 

Dharmapada

 

 

 

 

On Wed, 5 Dec 2001, 0108 wrote:

 

> I would like to ask you a specific question about the uniformity of

> adherence. In specific, in relation to February of 1943. Is it

> possible that in certain areas, the double daylight time might have

> been observed in spite of the fact that itshouldn't have started

until

> the day after the first Saturday in April? I ask this with reference

> to Liverpool.

>

> I'll tell you why-there is disagreement among astrologers about the

> time of birth of George Harrison. Itis creatingquite a fuss!

 

It is of course possible that some people or organisations might have

observed as time different from that prescribed by law (as happened

for

over 20 years in the 19th century, when almost all clocks kept GMT,

following the railways, although the courts had ruled that local time

was

legal time, until Parliament made legal time be GMT instead). It is

also

possible that, in the interests of wartime efficiency, people might

have

adjusted their working hours (with or without adjusting the clocks),

without needing the law to specify the change of time. It is also

possible (and likely) that some clocks were simply wrong. However, I

don't have any specific information about such variations in

Liverpool.

 

I suggest approaching the specific problem in an organised manner as

historians seeking evidence about the time used then. Appropriate

matters

to consider might be:

 

* Who recorded the time in question? With what precision did they

record

it? What other records of times did they make around that time? Did

they

leave any records, correspondence, etc., that referred to changes of

the

clocks or gave any other indication about how the time was to be

interpreted? (Any reference whatever to a time that can be backed up

from

other sources - that of an event that was independently reported, of

astronomical or meteorological phenomena, of sunrise or sunset, of

times

of going to work at places where other people who worked might still

be

alive, ..., might be usable to ascertain the time in use.) Is there

any

evidence as to the accuracy of their clock?

 

* Is there any reference in other contemporary sources to variation

in the

time observed from the legal time? For example, it would be

appropriate

to examine local Liverpool newspapers (for the duration of the war,

since

such a variation might have started some time earlier, or only been

mentioned in a small item in passing some time later) for any sign of

such

a variation. Similarly, there are probably available collections of

correspondence from people in Liverpool at the time.

 

* It might also be appropriate to write to the appropriate record

office

and any local historical society, to ask if they know anything of such

variations. If they don't, perhaps writing to local newspapers would

produce replies from local people who remember something.

 

--

Joseph S. Myers

jsm28