The History of the Hash House Harriers

Hare and Hounds-style chase game has been around for awhile. The original concept was to mimic the hunting sport when times, locations and game were sparse. Since the 'Hunters' were not endowed with a sense of smell as keen as true hounds, they required a trail of paper to help track their quarry.

William Henry Corkhill (1846–1936) [Two Men Dressed in Running Clothes] c.1900 glass negative From the Tilba Pictorial Collection

This sport was well entrenched - both in England and American - long before these participants became know as "Hashers". Next drawing is dated 1924.

The "Hash House Harriers" received its humble beginnings in 1938, from an Englishman named Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert. He moved to Kuala Lumpur and is given the credit for being the one who actually got the whole "Hash" thing off the ground. "G" as he was called, gathered together local expatriates to form a group that would later become a worldwide legacy. The group received its name from the Selangor Club Chambers, which with its unimaginative and monotonous food, was commonly referred to as the "Hash House".

The first runs averaged a dozen participants, though the attendance at times could be counted on one hand.

This relatively peaceful endeavor was cut short with the Japanese invasion. It took nearly a year after the war for the survivors of the Hash to reassemble. "Torch" 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 August 1946.

It was some time before the international Hash phenomena began to spread around the world. It took another 16 years for the second H3 Chapter to be founded in 1962 in Singapore. 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. The Singapore HHH was slowly followed by others until by the Mother Hash's 1500 postwar run in 1973.

At the time of the "Mother Hash" there were thirty-five known hashes around the world. This figure climbed into the hundreds by the eighties. Today there are over 1,200 Chapters, in some 160 countries, despite the total absence of any central organization.

More than anything else, the best explanation is that 'fun is contagious'. Indeed.

Information "Borrowed and Stolen" from various sources: Stray Dog, Flying Booger, Burnt Lips, and K.L. Hash, Left Over Spider Legs, Hardy's Hash House Harriers and edited by Buzz Lightyear.

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