THE 'HASH HOUSE'

The `Hash House' was the derogerative nickname given (for its unimaginative, monotonous food) to the Selangor Club Chambers in Kuala Lumpur, by the British Civil Servants and businessmen who lived there between the two World Wars, when it had become something of a social centre of the times. Sadly, the `Hash House' was demolished around 1964, to make way for a new highway, though the buildings housing the original stables and servants quarters are still in existence.

THE ANCIENT HARRIERS

The idea of harriers chasing on a paper trail was not new to Malaysia in 1938, as there had been such clubs before in Kuala Lumpur, Johore Bahru, Malacca and Ipoh (the `Kinta' Harriers). "Horse" Thompson, one of the KLH3 Founding Fathers, recalled being invited on a run shortly after his arrival in Johore Bahru in 1932, which chased a paper trail and followed basic Hash rules every week, but that club had no name and died out around 1935. The other branch of our ancestry came from Malacca, where A.S.("G") Gispert was posted in 1937 and joined a club called Springgit Harriers, who also operated weekly under Hash rules. "Torch" Bennett visited Gispert some months later and ran as a guest on a few runs.

THE HASH HOUSE HARRIERS By 1938, "G" Gispert, "Horse" Thompson, and "Torch" Bennett had all moved to K.L. and, joined by Cecil Lee, Eric Galvin and H.M. Doig, they founded their own club, following the rules they had learned elsewhere. Gispert is credited with proposing the name 'The Hash House Harriers', when the Registrar of Societies required the gathering to be legally registered. Other early members included Frank Woodward, Philip Wickens, Lew Davidson, John Wyatt-Smith and M.C. Hay. After 117 runs, KLH3 was forced into temporary hibernation by the arrival of the Japanese, and sadly,"G" Gispert did not live to see his extraordinary creation revive, being killed in the fighting on Singapore island on February 11 1942. It took nearly 12 months after the war for the survivors of the HHH to reassemble. Bennett put in a claim for the lost Hash mugs, a tin bath and two old bags from Government funds, and run No.1 was a trot around the racecourse in August 1946.

Strangely, it took another 16 years for the second H3 Chapter to be founded, in Singapore in 1962, followed by Kuching in 1963, Brunei, Kota Kinabalu and Ipoh in 1964, Penang and Malacca in 1965. Perth, Australia, was the first 'overseas' Chapter formed in 1967, and even in 1974, when KLH3 had run No. 1500, the HHH was only 35 Chapters worldwide. Now the Hash world has over 1,200 active Chapters, in some 160 countries, and this despite the total absence of any central organisation. We are unique!