The game is supposed to have been invented by one Colonel Snooker, of the Indian Army

Sporting Chronicle, Monday 08 May 1916

In the Long Ago.

Now and again some of the older heads talk of the days when Pyramids and Life-pool were the round games of the day. They can conjure up many a sporting incident (to say nothing of some stiff gambles when Old England was still the “Morrie England” in fact as in name) in the days of their youth. Gradually, and almost without anyone noticing their eclipse, Pyramids and Life-pool lost their popularity. Now and again one heard on a side-wind talk of a mysterious new game known as Snooker’s Pool. I first heard of it in the late eighties or early nineties. How far true the rumour was I am unable to say, but the game is supposed to have been invented by one Colonel Snooker, of the Indian Army.

The medley of the fifteen pyramid balls with the colours used in Life-pool does credit to the colonel’s ingenuity. Not only does it provide a very helpful asset to the manufacturer of billiard balls—which may have, at the inception, been one of the most prominent reasons to encourage the newcomer—but it also makes for a real good game. A round game of Snooker is the most uncertain of any that I know of. It is so uncertain as often to place a real good player on a level with novices. Only in a single-handed match does skill obtain the full measure of one player’s superiority over another.