George Hudson, a renowned amateur naturalist, was one of the earliest proponents of daylight savings. His obsession with insects led him to propose shifting the clocks back two hours during summer months, allowing more time for bug study and outdoor activities.
At the age of 13, budding amateur naturalist George Hudson wrote his first book on insects he collected and drew in meticulous detail. By the time of his death in 1946, he had penned and illustrated seven books, and amassed one of the largest collections of insect specimens in New Zealand. But despite the international renown he has received for his obsession with moths and butterflies, few people know that this obsession turned him into one of the earliest proponents of daylight savings .
All so he would have more time to study his bugs. Not one to let his insect-hunting be curtailed by working hours, Hudson proposed a solution: shift the clocks back two hours during summer months – a concept that foreshadowed the modern system of daylight saving time. Hudson argued in front of the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895 and 1989 that such a shift would allow folks to make use of early morning daylight for work, and then open up "a long period of daylight leisure" in the evening "for cricket, gardening, cycling or any other outdoor pursuit desired
George Hudson Amateur Naturalist Insects Daylight Savings Clocks Bug Study Outdoor Activities