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History
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In the early days of snooker, it was generally accepted that the game of snooker
originated in the British Army garrisons of India as a combination of the various
billiard games, particularly English billiards, which where then commonly played.
Beyond this nobody laid claim to its specific origins until a debate began in the
late 1930s.
One thing is certain though, the game in which Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain of the
Devonshire regiment claims to have named snooker ("snooker" once being
a derogatory term for a first-year cadet of the Royal Military Academy of Woolwich
in England) in 1875, and which for many years was referred to as
snooker's pool, bore more relation to the existing billiard games of
the time than the modern game of snooker – fewer balls were used, they were
positioned on different spots, had different values, and the scoring sequence and
rules would be unrecognizable to a follower of today's game of snooker.
Who brought about the changes which form the modern game remains a mystery, but they
were generally in place by 1900. They probably evolved through a series of individuals
in the Army Officers' Mess, or it is even thought the English gentleman at the club
in the Ootacamund hills of India added more balls to the game – perhaps this is
why Chamberlain waited over 60 years until the late 1930s before making his claim to
be the originator of snooker.
Here follows a letter by Compton McKenzie which appeared in the Billiard Player
publication of April 1939. The details of the letter have become accepted as fact as
to the origins of the game of snooker.
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The Billiard Player – April 1939
Last year an article in "The Field" put forward the theory that the game of
snooker had its origin at the Royal Military Academy (RMA), Woolwich, where
officers of the Royal Artillery and the Royal Engineers receive their training
as cadets.
The theory was plausible, because a first-year cadet at "The Shop", as the RMA
is familiarly known, is called a "snooker," the soubriquet being time's
corruption of the original word for a newly-joined cadet, which was "Neux." It
must be remembered that the RMA was founded as long ago as 1741.
The writer of the article stated that the original rules of snooker were copied
out by Lord Kitchener from those at "The Shop," brought by him to Ootacamund,
India, and there hung up in the Club.
This assertion was formally contradicted by General Sir Ian Hamilton in a
letter to "The Field" of July 11, 1938. In point of fact Lord Kitchener never
visited India until many years after snooker had become a popular game out
there.
Investigation has established that so far from snooker having originated at
"The Shop," the game was invented at Jubbulpore in the year 1875 by Colonel
Sir Neville Chamberlain, who is fortunately still with us and whose memory is
perfectly clear on the subject.
It befell during the "Rains" that Sir Neville, then a young subaltern in the
Devonshire Regiment, anxious to vary the game of Black Pool which was being
played every long wet afternoon on the Mess billiard table, suggested putting
down another coloured ball, to which others of different values were gradually
added.
One day a subaltern of the Field Battery at Jubbulpore was being entertained
by the Devons, and in the course of conversation told young Chamberlain about
the soubriquet "snooker" for first year cadets at Woolwich. To quote Sir
Neville's own words: "The term was a new one to me, but I soon had an
opportunity of exploiting it when one of our party failed to hole a coloured
ball which was close to a corner pocket. I called out to him: 'Why, you're a
regular snooker!'
"I had to explain to the company the definition of the word, and, to soothe
the feelings of the culprit, I added that we were all, so to speak, snookers
at the game, so it would he very appropriate to call the game snooker. The
suggestion was adopted with enthusiasm and the game has been called snooker
ever since."
In 1876 Sir Neville Chamberlain left the Devons to join the Central-India
Horse, taking with him the new game. A year or two later came the Afghan War,
a more serious potting game in which young Chamberlain was himself potted.
However, fortunately for himself and the great game which we enjoy so much
today, he recovered from his wound, and when at the close of 1881 General Sir
Frederick Roberts became Commander-in-Chief of the Madras Army, the inventor
of snooker served on his personal staff, and was with Roberts when every summer
he moved to the hill station at Ootacamund known to all and sundry as "Ooty"
Here came officers from big garrisons like Bangalore and Secundderabad and
planters from Mysore. All of them enjoyed snooker as a speciality of the
"Ooty" Club where the rules of the game were drawn up and posted in the
billiards room, but not by Lord Kitchener.
During the eighties rumours of the new game in India reached England. One
evening Sir Neville Chamberlain when dining in Calcutta with the Maharaja of
Cooch Behar was introduced to a well-known professional billiards player whom
he had engaged from England for some lessons.
This professional told the Maharaja he had been asked in England to obtain the
rules of the new game snooker and the Maharaja introduced Sir Neville
Chamberlain to him as the best person to give him the information he wanted
because he was the inventor of it.
In a letter to "The Field" of March 19, 1938, Sir Neville regretted he did not
know the name of the professional but thought he was probably a contemporary
of John Roberts and W. Cook. A week or two later Mr. F. H. Cumberlege wrote to
Sir Neville Chamberlain to say that the professional must have been John
Roberts himself who came out to Calcutta in 1885. Mr. Cumberlege added that he
remembered showing the Maharaja the new game of snooker at Cooch Behar after a
shooting party in the spring of 1884.
Sir Neville Chamberlain has received from several other distinguished
authorities confirmation of his claim to be the inventor of snooker.
Major-General W. A. Watson, Colonel of the Central India Horse (his old
regiment) wrote: "I have a clear recollection of you rejoining the regiment in
1884. You brought with you a brand new game, which you called snooker or
snookers. There were the black, the pink, the yellow and the green. We all
understood it was your own invention. We took to it very keenly."
Major-General Sir John Hanbury Williams (Colonel of the 43rd Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry) wrote: "I was always under the impression that
you introduced the game of snooker to the 43rd. in 1884-5. Certainly the 43rd
never played snooker till you came and introduced it to us. Hope you will stick
to the honour of its invention."
Field Marshal Lord Birdwood wrote: "I remember well you introducing the game
of snookers into the 12th Lancers' Mess, when I was a subaltern in the Regiment
at Bangalore in '85."
Sir Walter Lawrence, Bt., wrote: "When we first met in Simla in 1886, when you
were with Lord Roberts, the Commander-in-Chief, and afterwards when we served
together in Kashmir, I always looked upon you as the inventor of snooker, and I
know that this idea was common to many of my friends. Quite recently, last
year (1937) I was telling some of my friends in England who were discussing
snooker, that I had the honour of knowing very intimately the inventor of the
game."
The testimony of these and other highly distinguished officers finally disposes
of the theory advanced with some emphasis by the writer in "The Field" that
the game of snooker originated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and it
has been a privilege for me to assemble in print such incontrovertible evidence.
There is nothing to add except that all the many thousands of snooker players
the world over will wish Colonel Sir Neville Chamberlain, who is now in his
84th year, many another year to enjoy the honour of being the inventor of a
game, now 63 years old, which has added so much to the gaiety of nations.
– Compton McKenzie. (1938) |
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