Who Was Guinness and How Did His Record Obsession Start?

While not many of us are world record-breakers, we all know of the Guinness Book of World Records. Even if you don’t own a single edition of the book, we are sure you have seen one or even flipped through one at some point in your life. This brand of recorded achievements has quite an interesting origin story.

So, How Did It All Start?

Well, interestingly enough, it all started from an old-timey version of a guy’s night out, but more on that in a little bit. The man who played the most central role in creating the book was Hugh Beaver. Born in South Africa in 1890, his life has taken him far and wide. He had periods of living in England and in Canada and his different workplaces over the years include the Indian police and the civil engineering project of developing Canadian harbors. He is most well remembered, however, as the managing director of the Guinness Brewery — yes the beer.

Beaver was invited to a shooting party in County Wexford somewhere in the mid-1950s. While he and the dudes were shooting the breeze (and possibly some other things) they had a friendly argument over the question of the fastest game bird in Europe. Seeing as Google was not a thing at the time, the men turned to the library to try and find the answer in a reference book and came up short.

Beaver saw the potential in a book of facts and figures that would help settle any similar alcohol-induced quandaries at a pub. He hired a pair of twins, Norris and Ross McWhirter to put that book together. The two set out on the project and started researching. Once they had all the information, it took them a little more than 13 weeks of intense labor (including holidays and weekends) to put together the first edition of a book that would change the world.