What was the time in 1916?

[Exaltabit]

What time zone was used in France during the war? I want to retrace my grandfather's footsteps to the moment he went over the top at zero hour but was GMT used BST, double BST, French time? What is 1405 on 12th October 1916 in today's money?

Thanks.

[WhiteStarLine]

Sorry I don't have a detailed answer, but I know from the AIF Unit War Diaries that changes were regularly made to summertime and the timezone is alway stated at that point.

According to http://www.timeandda...=195&syear=1900, the following timezone and daylight savings changes were made in France eary last century:

1901 - 1910 No time changes

1911 Time zone change on Friday, 10 March 1911 at 11:51:39 PM

1912 - 1915 No time changes

1916 Wednesday, 14 June at 11:00 PM Midnight between Sunday, 1 October and Monday, 2 October

1917 Saturday, 24 March at 11:00 PM Midnight between Sunday, 7 October and Monday, 8 October

1918 Saturday, 9 March at 11:00 PM Midnight between Sunday, 6 October and Monday, 7 October

On Wednesday, 14 June 1916 at 11:00:00 PM clocks were turned forward 1 hour to Thursday, 15 June 1916 at 12:00:00 Midnight local daylight time instead.

If you have a copy of your grandfather's unit war diary, possibly you can cross check this date?

[Exaltabit]

From the diary of 2nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 1/10/16, ' clock put back 1 hour on morning of 1st at 1.00am to normal GMT.

Ben

[Kath]

An interesting point.

There are reports of dreams and hallucinations by relatives at the time of their loved ones' death.

How does one determine the time in countries other than France?

Kath.

[David B]

Kath,

There are charts availabe which indicate the various time zones kept by countries around the world.

I aso think there is a time zone in your forum settings which you apply so any activity is recorded in

your unique zone. In the navy (and no doubt the airforce) we were constantly changing time zones and

one became used to it after a while, however in the wireless office te normal practice was to keep GMT

no matter where you were.

I ncidentally a rough rule of thumb is for every fifteen degrees to the east the clock is moved forward

one hour.

[Jack Sheldon]

Generally speaking the 24 hour clock was not used, so your example would have been 2.05 pm. In terms of relative time, the time in the German trenches opposite would have been 3.05 pm.

Jack

[Kath]

Thank you, David.

Will have a word with my son (the brains of the family).

Kath.

[Muerrisch]

Generally speaking the 24 hour clock was not used, so your example would have been 2.05 pm. In terms of relative time, the time in the German trenches opposite would have been 3.05 pm.

Jack

24 hour clock intro by Army Order just in time to make "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" a load of cobblers!

Intro. midnight 30 Sep/01 Oct 1918 [ah! but was it GMT I wonder?].

So Armistice was in effect at 1100 hours, not 11 o'clock.

[in my profession, the day ended at 2359, and began at 0001. The missing 2 minutes were your time off, tea break, etc].

[David B]

Same time Grumpy. I often wondered what happened to that missing two minutes, never everm was a signal sent with the date time group of 0000.

[bill24chev]

Generally speaking the 24 hour clock was not used, so your example would have been 2.05 pm. In terms of relative time, the time in the German trenches opposite would have been 3.05 pm.

Jack

The French now use the same time zone as Germany although much of France is on the same longditude as the UK. Was this the case then I.E.did the French held trenches have the same time as the British or the Germans?

[bill24chev]

Same time Grumpy. I often wondered what happened to that missing two minutes, never everm was a signal sent with the date time group of 0000.

in my day The Queen, who paid my wages, gave me two minutes a day to myself.