Who is credited with inventing snooker in 1875 while serving in the British Army in India?

Neville Chamberlain is credited with inventing snooker in 1875 while serving in the British Army in India.

The game reportedly began at the officers’ mess in Jubbulpore, where Chamberlain and fellow officers adapted black pool by adding coloured balls and extra rules. The name “snooker” came from an unfamiliar term for a first-year cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

This Neville Chamberlain was a British Army officer, not the later British prime minister of the same name. That shared name is one of the most common sources of confusion in accounts of snooker’s origins.

The game developed from existing billiards and pool traditions before spreading through military and sporting circles. Its modern rules and equipment evolved gradually, so Chamberlain is generally described as the inventor or originator rather than the sole designer of every modern rule.