Hash History

Hashing originated in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1938, when a group of British colonial officers and expatriates began meeting on Monday evenings to run, in a fashion patterned after the traditional British Paper Chase or "Hare and Hounds", to rid themselves of the excesses of the previous weekend. The original members included Cecil Lee, Frederick "Horse" Thomson, Ronald "Torch" Bennett, and Albert Stephen (A.S.) Ignatius "G" Gispert and John Woodrow.[1]

Formation

^ top After meeting for some months, they were informed by the Registrar of Societies that as a "group," they would require a Constitution and an official name. A.S. Gispert suggested the name "Hash House Harriers" after the Selangor Club, where the men were billeted, known as the "Hash House" for its notoriously monotonous food. Apart from the excitement of chasing the hare and finding the trail, harriers reaching the end of the trail would be rewarded with beer, ginger beer, and, in those more awesome times, cigarettes.

Constitution

^ top The Constitution of the Hash House Harriers is recorded on a club registration card dated 1950:

• To promote physical fitness among our members
• To get rid of weekend hangovers
• To acquire a good thirst and to satisfy it in beer
• To persuade the older members that they are not as old as they feel

Ancient Harriers

^ top The idea of Harriers chasing paper was not new to Malaya in 1938. The roots of the cross country running sport known as the 'Hare and Hounds' go back in Britain for about 150 years, and the sport was probably known elsewhere. 'Horse' Thomson (one of the KLH3 Founding Fathers) recalled being invited on a Hare and Hounds run shortly after his arrival in Johore Bahru in 1932, which chased a paper trail and followed basic hash rules, but the club was so loosely organised that it had no name and is believed to have died around 1935. More firmly organised Hare and Hounds clubs existed in Kuala Lumpur (the Kuala Lumpur Harriers which ran in the early 30's), in Ipoh (The Kinta Harriers), and in Malacca (The Springgit Harriers, formed in 1935), which A.S. 'G' Gispert, an accountant joined when posted there in 1937 and which ran weekly under what we now known as Hash rules. Some months later, 'Torch' Bennet (another accountant) visited Gispert in Malacca and ran as a guest on a few runs.

The Hash House Harriers

^ top By 1938, Gispert, Thomson, Bennet and Lee had all moved to K.L. where, according to Cecil Lee, 'G' Gispert was the rotund, jolly, moving spirit behind the formation of a regular group of hares and hounds who ran each Monday, to work off the excesses of the weekend. It was also 'G' Gispert who apparently gave the new club the name 'The Hash House Harriers', with Run No. 1 being from the Selangor Club in December 1938. In those days, the Selangor Club and central K.L. area was so small, and surrounded by rubber plantations, that the trails were easy to lay. Little did Gispert know that he was founding an international organization. There were probably only about a dozen or so members of the original HHH, including A.S. 'G' Gispert and 'Torch' Bennet, both accountants with Evatt & Co; 'Horse' Thomson of Malayan Posts & Telegraphs; Eric Galvin of the Malay Mail; Cecil Lee and H.M.Doig of Harrisons & Crossfield; Morris Edgar, a solicitor, and John Barret, an accountant. They were soon joined by a few others, including Frank Woodward; Philip Wickens; Lew Davidson and E.A.Ross. The war and the Japanese invasion took its inevitable toll and Gispert, the cheerful inspiration and founder of the HHH, who was volunteer in the Reserves, was killed in action in Singapore on 11th February 1942, at the tender age of 38.

Post War Rebirth

^ top According to Cecil Lee, when the surviving members returned to K.L. after the war, it was primarily a tribute to the memory of Gispert that the re-creation of the HHH came about, ably assisted by 'Torch' Bennett who discovered an outstanding bank balance and put in a claim for War Damage on one tin bath and two dozen mugs. Their first post war run was a trot around the racecourse in August 1946. Strangely, none of the other Hare and Hounds clubs in Malaya seem to have re-formed after the war, and the HHH itself was never large in numbers, the roll call in 1957 being only 19 hardy members, who kept running right through the Emergency years.

Meanwhile, unknown to the HHH in Kuala Lumpur, another Hash club had been formed on the Italian Riviera, at Bordighera in April 1947, by Captain 'Gus' Mackey who had run as a guest of his brother, Rupert Mackey, with the KLH3 before the war, and had been captured and imprisoned in Italy. He settled down in Italy after the war and formed the Bordighera HHH who ran on Hash rules and which flourished among British ex-servicemen until 1961. The Milan HHH which was formed in 1990 discovered the history of the BH3 by accident and, at the suggestion of Tim 'Magic' Hughes, subsumed their title in forming the Royal Milan & Bordighera HHH, which runs once a year in Bordighera, with a guest appearance by the ghost of Gus Mackey.

The Hash Spreads Out

^ top The second continuously running Hash Chapter was founded in Singapore in February 1962 by Ian Cumming of KLH3 and then (following the movement of troops during the Konfrontasi period) chapters were founded in Brunei and Kuching and Sandakan in 1963, Jesselton (Kota Kinabalu), Sibu and Miri in 1964, Ipoh and Penang in 1965. Thus a total of ten chapters from Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, celebrated the 1,000 post-war Hash run of KLH3, in K.L. on 12 March 1966 and promptly added 117 pre-war runs to their run numbers (to bring the next celebration run forward more quickly!).

Dhekelia (an army base) in Cyprus was the first Hash Chapter created outside South East Asia in January 1967, followed by Hobart and Sydney in October 1967 and Episkopi (Cyprus) in November 1967. By the time of the Hash Bash to celebrate KLH3's 1,500 Run in 1973, there were still only 35 Hash Chapters in existence, of which 11 were in Malaysia.

The subsequent (and continuing) explosion of the number of Hash Kennels worldwide is a source of quiet amazement to many hashers, most of whom know only their own Hash chapters and their weekly runs. Numbers are not too exact among typical Hash MisManagement, but the latest Harrier International Directory lists over 1,600 active Hash Chapters in 181 countries or territories, which would mean that, with an average Hash Chapter membership of between 50 to 80, there could be a worldwide total of 80,000 to 100,000 hashers, running in every possible type of terrain and climate.[2]

By continents, first hash in...

• Europe: Dhekelia, Cyprus, 1967
• Australia: Hobart, October 1967
• Africa: Durban, 1971
• North America: Washington D.C./Fort Eustis, 1972
• South America: ???
• Antarctica: British Antarctic Survey Base, June 1998[3]

Present

^ top There are almost two thousand kennels in all parts of the world, with members distributing newsletters, directories, and magazines and organizing regional and world hashing events. As of 2003, there are even two organized kennels operating in Antarctica[4].