Fred Hoyle was born in Gilstead, West Yorkshire, England. His father, George Hoyle, worked in the wool trade and his mother, Mabel Pickard, had studied music at the Royal College of Music in London. Hoyle was educated at Bingley Grammar School and read mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Hoyle spent most of his working life at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and served as its director for a number of years. He died in Bournemouth, England in 2001, after a series of strokes.

In addition to his work as an astronomer, Hoyle was a published writer of science fiction, including several co-authored with his son, Geoffrey Hoyle. Among his fictional books were A for Andromeda, The Black Cloud, and several others.

Hoyle was reportedly an atheist during most of his early life, but became agnostic when he found that he could not feel comfortable trying to explain the finer workings of physics and the Universe as simply “an accident.”

Editor’s Notes: Evidence would indicate that Sir Fred Hoyle would be considered a member of the British branch of families that carry the Hoyle surname.

Although Hoyle coined the phrase “Big Bang Theory,” he often explained his use of the term as a way to best describe the theory that was then (and still is) in vogue. He explained that he agreed that the Universe is growing outward and its bodies are moving away from each other, but he disagreed that all of mass and energy could have been generated by a single over-energized atomic particle.

Hoyle proposed several theories of his own to explain the functions of the Universe. While many are still used to explain certain aspects of the motion of bodies and time/space relationships, other theories of his have been discounted and in some cases rejected by later generations of scientists.

For his contributions to astronomy and science in general, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1957 and was knighted in 1972. Although he won many distinguished prizes and honors, he was overlooked for a Nobel Prize that was awarded to a co-worker of his for a project that both had contributed to. It was thought that Hoyle’s frequent criticism of current accepted theories made him somewhat unpopular amongst some of his peers, and may have injured his reputation somewhat.

As one reviewer of Fred Hoyle’s 1994 autobiography (Home Is Where the Wind Blows: Chapters from a Cosmologist’s Life ) described him, “[Fred] Hoyle so distinguished himself at Cambridge for his mathematical prowess that he was subsequently awarded a high place within the British scientific establishment…But it was Hoyle’s willingness to stand apart from the scientific establishment, his intellectual daring, that enabled him to fathom supernovas and to predict the existence of quasars.”

The phrase “according to Hoyle” is most often used in situations when a speaker wants to indicate that his comment is based on some acknowledged level of authority, especially when a direct written reference is not available. In other words, a speaker is asserting that what he is saying or proposing is based on the highest authority and in accord with a strict set of rules.

Little is known about most of Edmond Hoyle’s life. Hoyle is believed to have been trained to become a barrister (lawyer, attorney). In 1741, Hoyle began working as a whist tutor to members of the English Royal Family and other members of the upper classes. In addition to providing personal instruction, he sold a short booklet on the game of whist to his clients, describing his strategies for playing the game. After hIs booklet became quite popular, unauthorized copies of it began to circulate throughout London. Hoyle later published and copyrighted his A Short Treatise On The Game Of Whist: Containing The Laws Of The Game And Also Some Rules (1743) in an attempt to prevent the unauthorized publication of his works.

Editor’s Notes: Evidence would indicate that Sir Edmond (Edmund) Hoyle would be considered a member of the British branch of families that carry the Hoyle surname.

Because of his success, Hoyle followed with similar treatises on backgammon, chess, quadrille, piquet, and brag. In 1750, a compendium of these essays was published, as Mr. Hoyle’s Games Complete, and over time it pushed off the market Charles Cotton’s aging The Compleat Gamester, long considered to be the “standard” English-language reference work on the subject of playing of games – especially gambling games – since its publication in 1674.

Hoyle’s A Short Treatise On The Game Of Whist was regarded as authoritative until 1864, after which time it was superseded by the new rules written by John Loraine Baldwin and adopted by the Arlington and Portland clubs.

Many modern game rule books still contain the word “Hoyle” in the title, but that doesn’t mean that they are works that are directly derivative of those written by Hoyle.

Sir Edmond Hoyle was a charter inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979 thanks to his many contributions to not only poker, but all types of card and board games.

Sir Edmond’s surname can still be seen printed on hundreds of books such as Hoyle’s Rules of Games: Third Revised and Updated Edition about card and board games and on the backs of playing cards.