GR translation: everyone grudging an hour’s sleep

[Michael Bailey]

>From Wikipedia:
In the summers of 1941 to 1945, during the Second World War, Britain was
two hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time(BDST).
To bring this about, the clocks were not put back by an hour at the end of
summer in 1940 (BST having started early, on 25 February 1940). In
subsequent years, clocks continued to be advanced by one hour each spring
(to BDST) and put back by an hour each autumn (to BST). On 15 July 1945,
the clocks were put back by an hour, so BDST reverted to BST; the clocks
were put back by an additional hour on 7 October 1945, so BST reverted to
GMT for the winter of 1945.



GR begins in 1944, doesn’t it?
BDST began at 2 am on Sunday, April 2 that year.

So if they are begrudging the hour of sleep because of the time change,
then that fixes the date as April 2nd.

Or maybe this seance was called earlier than normal, making everyone come
in early, but there’s no sign of that in the text at all, whereas there are
2 references to BDST in the preceding few pages.

(It was fun to revisit one of the best jokes in the book: Constant
Slothrop’s son Variable)