On August 9th, 1940, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of UK, sent a Memorandum to the War Cabinet . He asked his staff to write shorter Reports and to avoid those useless phrases which could be replaced by one word.

In particular he wrote, in the final part of the Memorandum:

The saving in time will be great, while the discipline of setting out the real point concisely will prove an aid to clearer thinking.

Copy of the original document is available at UK National Archives http://www.ukwarcabinet.org.uk/documents/345

cab-67-8-11-0001-000