Singapore Hash House Harriets
Running in Singapore since 1973
We now know that the Singapore Harriets were not the first ladies' hash, as the Penang Harriets are about 3 years older, and we have not yet researched the history of other Harriet clubs. If you do know something, please go to our wiki and contribute to the history.
More about the Harriets History project is available here.
The Harriets Chapter was born in October 1973. According to Hash History, the Singapore Hash House Harriets was the first Ladies Hash in the world! It was brought to life by a very small group of Hash Widow's whose husbands disappeared weekly only to come home late, all sweaty, muddy and happy.
The ladies asked themselves why do men enjoy this so much and why can't women participate?? With that, they organized a run on 17-October-1973 that started at Dover Road. 12 ladies turned up for the run after much phone calling and persuasion. They had so much fun they did it again the following week and then the next week and that's how it started.
Back in those days, men were only allowed to join in on the Hash run with the Ladies if they were invited by one of the Ladies and approved by the committee. Today, men are allowed to join without official invitation but there are rules on the Harriets Hash run. No male may lead the pack ever during the run. Those found guilty of leading or even those who are just accused of leading at some time during the run will be required to wear lipstick to the On-On-On (dinner) after the run. The Singapore Hash House Harriets have now held 1374 weekly runs since they started in 1973 and have an active membership of over 100.
This Hash is a group of people who open their arms to all. There are no restrictions except that members must be at least 18 years old. The membership is comprised of many nationalities, from Asia, from Europe, from the Americas as well as many walks of life, yet they all run side by side, help each other over obstacles, encourage each other to keep going when they are tired, work as a team to solve the puzzle of the trail, and share in conversation and some fun when all have returned back safely.
Author: unknown (if you wrote this please own up).
We have found a number of documents in the archive:
