Born in Kings Heath — The Man Who Invented Cluedo

One of the most beloved board games ever created was invented at a semi-detached house in Kings Heath during the Blitz. The man behind it was Anthony Ernest Pratt, and the game was Cluedo.

Pratt was born in 1903 in nearby Balsall Heath and was a gifted musician from an early age, earning his living as a pianist touring country hotels and cruise ships across England. When the Second World War began, his musical career ended and he found himself working a drilling machine in a Birmingham engineering factory making parts for tanks — repetitive, numbing work that, paradoxically, gave him the mental space to think.

From 1943, Pratt and his wife Elva were living at 9 Stanley Road, Kings Heath. Working long evenings behind blackout blinds as air raids kept Birmingham's residents indoors, the couple began designing a murder mystery board game. The inspiration came from two sources: Pratt's love of detective fiction — he was a devoted reader of Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler — and his memories of the murder mystery parlour games he had seen played in the country hotels where he had worked as a musician. He later told an interviewer: "I was leaning on the fence of our King's Heath home and it dawned on me that this wretched war was killing this country's social life." The game was his answer.

Elva designed the artwork for the board itself, which some believe was inspired by Highbury Hall nearby. The original game was called simply "Murder!" Pratt filed his patent application on 1 December 1944, and in February 1945 demonstrated it to Norman Watson, managing director of Waddingtons, who was immediately convinced. After minor modifications, Waddingtons renamed it Cluedo — a combination of "Clue" and "Ludo" (Latin for "I play") — and agreed to manufacture it. Post-war material shortages meant it did not go on sale until 1949.

Cluedo sold poorly at first, and Waddingtons considered it a near-failure. Pratt got a job helping demobilised servicemen back into work. Then the game found its audience. By 1953 it was selling well enough that Waddingtons offered Pratt £5,000 for the overseas rights — a significant sum at the time, but a fraction of what those rights would eventually be worth. Pratt accepted. When the British patent expired in the 1960s, his income from the game dried up entirely. He worked as a solicitor's clerk and later retired to Bournemouth.

Cluedo went on to sell over 150 million copies worldwide, spawn a Hollywood film, television series, stage play, musical and countless digital versions. It is played in over 73 countries, and remains one of the best-selling board games in history. Anthony Pratt died in a Birmingham nursing home in 1994, aged 90, having received relatively modest reward for one of the most enduring inventions in the history of play.

In 2013, a blue plaque was installed at 9 Stanley Road, Kings Heath, to honour him. In November 2025, Pratt's daughter Marcia donated his original correspondence, photographs, memorabilia and an early version of the game to Birmingham Archives and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery — ensuring that Kings Heath's most quietly remarkable story is finally preserved for the city.

Sources: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), Birmingham Museums (public information), Kings Heath Walk of Fame (public information)