Anthony E. Pratt Birmingham that manufactured components for tanks. Working on a drilling machine, he found the work tedious, but it gave him time to think, including about the ideas behind Cluedo. It was during the Second World War that Pratt had the idea for a murder mystery board game. The idea for Cluedo came from his days spent playing musical concerts in country hotels where part of the evening's entertainment would have been murder mystery games. These would involve both actors and hotel guests playing the characters in a plot which involved the murder of one or more of the guests. The
Anthony E. Pratt Anthony and his wife Elva (1913-1990) began designing a murder mystery board game. The original game was called "Murder!", with the artwork for the board itself designed by Elva. Pratt filed his original patent application on 1 December 1944. He had spoken to a close friend, Geoffrey Bull (who had invented the board game Buccaneer), and it was Bull who introduced him to Norman Watson, managing director of games manufacturer Waddingtons. In February 1945, Pratt demonstrated the game to Watson, who immediately saw the winning formula of the game and, after a few minor modifications, decided to go ahead and