Major Greenwood
Encyclopedia
Major Greenwood FRS (9 August 1880 - 5 October 1949) was an English epidemiologist and statistician
.
Major Greenwood junior was born in Shoreditch
in London's East End
, the only child of a doctor
in general practice there. ("Major" was his forename, not a military rank.) He was educated on the classical side at Merchant Taylors' School
and went on to study medicine at University College London
and the London Hospital. On qualifying in 1904 he worked for a time as assistant to his father but after a few months he gave up clinical practice for good.
He went to work as a demonstrator for the physiologist Leonard Hill
(father of the future statistician Austin Bradford Hill
) at the London Hospital Medical College. Leonard Hill recalled, “By recognising the ability of a student with nothing behind him to show his worth and by appointing him my assistant I may claim to have started Greenwood on his career.” While Greenwood made a good start in physiological research he was already drawn to statistics; his first paper in Biometrika
appeared in 1904. After a period of study with Karl Pearson
he was appointed statistician to the Lister Institute in 1910. There he worked on a wide range of problems, including a study of the effectiveness of inoculation
with the statistician Udny Yule
. In the First World War
Greenwood first served in the Royal Army Medical Corps
but then was put in charge of a medical research unit at the Ministry of Munitions. There he investigated the health problems associated with factory
work, one result of which was an influential study of accidents which he produced with Yule. In 1919 Greenwood joined the newly created Ministry of Health with responsibility for medical statistics. In 1928 he became the first professor of Epidemiology
and Vital Statistics
at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he stayed until he retired in 1945. He established a group of researchers, of whom the most important was Austin Bradford Hill
. Greenwood played the same role in A. B. Hill’s career as Hill’s father had played in his.
The Royal Society
awarded the Buchanan Medal
to Greenwood in 1927, and elected him a Fellow in 1928. The election certificate stated
He was elected President of the Royal Statistical Society
in 1934 and awarded its Guy Medal
in Gold in 1945.
Greenwood produced a large body of research, was the first holder of important positions in modern medical statistics
and wrote extensively on the history of his subject, but as Austin Bradford Hill
wrote in his obituary, “in the future, it may well indeed seem that one of his greatest contributions, if not the greatest, lay merely in his outlook, in his statistical approach to medicine, then a new approach and one long regarded with suspicion. And he fought this fight continuously and honestly—for logic for accuracy, for ‘little sums.’” A statistical method invented by Major Greenwood in a statistical study of infectious diseases is still used in present day research. The Greenwood statistic was used to discover that there is some kind of order in the placement of genes on the chromosomes of living things and this inspired a new look at epigenetics, which is now considered to be equally as important as genetics in how living organisms develop and evolve.
Greenwood lived at Loughton
, where among his neighbours were Sir Frank Baines, Millais Culpin, and Leonard Erskine Hill
.
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
.
Major Greenwood junior was born in Shoreditch
Shoreditch
Shoreditch is an area of London within the London Borough of Hackney in England. It is a built-up part of the inner city immediately to the north of the City of London, located east-northeast of Charing Cross.-Etymology:...
in London's East End
East End of London
The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
, the only child of a doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
in general practice there. ("Major" was his forename, not a military rank.) He was educated on the classical side at Merchant Taylors' School
Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood
Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....
and went on to study medicine at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and the London Hospital. On qualifying in 1904 he worked for a time as assistant to his father but after a few months he gave up clinical practice for good.
He went to work as a demonstrator for the physiologist Leonard Hill
Leonard Erskine Hill
Sir Leonard Erskine Hill was a British physiologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900 and was knighted in 1930. One of his sons was the epidemiologist and statistician Austin Bradford Hill...
(father of the future statistician Austin Bradford Hill
Austin Bradford Hill
Sir Austin Bradford Hill FRS , English epidemiologist and statistician, pioneered the randomized clinical trial and, together with Richard Doll, was the first to demonstrate the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer...
) at the London Hospital Medical College. Leonard Hill recalled, “By recognising the ability of a student with nothing behind him to show his worth and by appointing him my assistant I may claim to have started Greenwood on his career.” While Greenwood made a good start in physiological research he was already drawn to statistics; his first paper in Biometrika
Biometrika
- External links :* . The Internet Archive. 2011....
appeared in 1904. After a period of study with Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
he was appointed statistician to the Lister Institute in 1910. There he worked on a wide range of problems, including a study of the effectiveness of inoculation
Inoculation
Inoculation is the placement of something that will grow or reproduce, and is most commonly used in respect of the introduction of a serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease...
with the statistician Udny Yule
Udny Yule
George Udny Yule FRS , usually known as Udny Yule, was a British statistician, born at Beech Hill, a house in Morham near Haddington, Scotland and died in Cambridge, England. His father, also George Udny Yule, and a nephew, were knighted. His uncle was the noted orientalist Sir Henry Yule...
. In the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Greenwood first served in the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
but then was put in charge of a medical research unit at the Ministry of Munitions. There he investigated the health problems associated with factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...
work, one result of which was an influential study of accidents which he produced with Yule. In 1919 Greenwood joined the newly created Ministry of Health with responsibility for medical statistics. In 1928 he became the first professor of Epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
and Vital Statistics
Vital statistics
Vital statistics are the information maintained by a government, recording the birth and death of individuals within that government's jurisdiction. These data are used by public health programs to evaluate how effective their programs are...
at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he stayed until he retired in 1945. He established a group of researchers, of whom the most important was Austin Bradford Hill
Austin Bradford Hill
Sir Austin Bradford Hill FRS , English epidemiologist and statistician, pioneered the randomized clinical trial and, together with Richard Doll, was the first to demonstrate the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer...
. Greenwood played the same role in A. B. Hill’s career as Hill’s father had played in his.
The Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
awarded the Buchanan Medal
Buchanan Medal
The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every year "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan . It was to be awarded once every five years, but since...
to Greenwood in 1927, and elected him a Fellow in 1928. The election certificate stated
Engaged in medical research. Has applied the statistical method to the elucidation of many problems of physiology, pathology, hygiene and epidemiology. Is the author, or joint author, of more than sixty papers dealing with these applications, including important contributions to the experimental study of epidemiology (Journ Hyg, 24, 1925, Greenwood and Topley; ibid, 25, 1926, Greenwood, Newbold, Topley and Wilson). Has done much to encourage and develop the use of modern statistical methods by medical laboratory investigators, and, as Chairman of the Medical Research Council's Statistical Committee, to secure the adequate planning and execution of field investigations.
He was elected President of the Royal Statistical Society
President of the Royal Statistical Society
The President of the Royal Statistical Society is the head of the Royal Statistical Society , elected biannually by the Fellows of the Society. ....
in 1934 and awarded its Guy Medal
Guy Medal
The Guy Medals are awarded by the Royal Statistical Society in three categories; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Gold Medal is awarded triennially, the other two are awarded annually...
in Gold in 1945.
Greenwood produced a large body of research, was the first holder of important positions in modern medical statistics
Medical statistics
Medical statistics deals with applications of statistics to medicine and the health sciences, including epidemiology, public health, forensic medicine, and clinical research...
and wrote extensively on the history of his subject, but as Austin Bradford Hill
Austin Bradford Hill
Sir Austin Bradford Hill FRS , English epidemiologist and statistician, pioneered the randomized clinical trial and, together with Richard Doll, was the first to demonstrate the connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer...
wrote in his obituary, “in the future, it may well indeed seem that one of his greatest contributions, if not the greatest, lay merely in his outlook, in his statistical approach to medicine, then a new approach and one long regarded with suspicion. And he fought this fight continuously and honestly—for logic for accuracy, for ‘little sums.’” A statistical method invented by Major Greenwood in a statistical study of infectious diseases is still used in present day research. The Greenwood statistic was used to discover that there is some kind of order in the placement of genes on the chromosomes of living things and this inspired a new look at epigenetics, which is now considered to be equally as important as genetics in how living organisms develop and evolve.
Greenwood lived at Loughton
Loughton
Loughton is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of Essex. It is located between 11 and 13 miles north east of Charing Cross in London, south of the M25 and west of the M11 motorway and has boundaries with Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill...
, where among his neighbours were Sir Frank Baines, Millais Culpin, and Leonard Erskine Hill
Leonard Erskine Hill
Sir Leonard Erskine Hill was a British physiologist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1900 and was knighted in 1930. One of his sons was the epidemiologist and statistician Austin Bradford Hill...
.
Publications
- M. Greenwood (1904) A First Study of the Weight, Variability, and Correlation of the Human Viscera, with Special Reference to the Healthy and Diseased Heart, Biometrika, 3, 63-83.
- Major Greenwood and G. Udny Yule (1915) 'The Statistics of Anti-Typhoid and Anti-Cholera Inoculations, and the Interpretation of such Statistics in General, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine (Epidemiology), 8, 113-190.
- Major Greenwood and G. Udny Yule (1920), An Inquiry into the Nature of Frequency Distributions Representative of Multiple Happenings with Particular Reference to the Occurrence of Multiple Attacks of Disease or of Repeated Accidents. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 83: 255-279.
- Edgar L. Collis and Major Greenwood The health of the industrial worker. 1921
- Major Greenwood Epidemics and crowd-diseases: an introduction to the study of epidemiology. 1935
- Major Greenwood Medical statistics from Graunt to Farr: the Fitzpatrick lectures for the years 1941 and 1943. 1948
Further reading
- Royal Society Certificate of Election and Candidature
- A. B. H.; William Butler (1949) Obituary: Major Greenwood, Journal of the Royal Statistical SocietyJournal of the Royal Statistical SocietyThe Journal of the Royal Statistical Society is a series of three peer-reviewed statistics journals published by Blackwell Publishing for the London-based Royal Statistical Society.- History :...
. Series A (General), 112, 487-489. - P. L. McKinlay (1951) Major Greenwood: 1880-1949, Biometrika, 38, 1-3.
- Anne Hardy; Eileen Magnello (2002) Statistical methods in epidemiology: Karl Pearson, Ronald Ross, Major Greenwood and Austin Bradford Hill, 1900-1945 Soz Praventiv Med; 47(2): 80-89.
- V. Farewell, T. Johnson & Peter ArmitagePeter ArmitagePeter Armitage is a statistician specialising in medical statistics.Peter Armitage attended Huddersfield College and went on to read mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. Armitage belonged to the generation of mathematicians who came to maturity in the Second World War...
(2006) `A Memorandum on the Present Posiition and Prospects of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology' by Major Greenwood, Statistics in Medicine, 25, 2167-2177. - J. Rosser Matthews (1995) Quantification and the Quest for Medical Certainty, Princeton, Princeton University Press.