William Palin Elderton
Encyclopedia
Sir William Palin Elderton KBE PhD (Oslo) (1877–1962) was a British
actuary
who served as president of the Institute of Actuaries
(1932–1934). Elderton also had a very long association with the statistical journal Biometrika
. In its early days he published several articles, and in 1935 he became chairman of the Biometrika Trust.
In 1900 when he was training to be an actuary Elderton met Karl Pearson
and was drawn into the University College
statistical group. In 1902 Elderton computed the first tables of Pearson's chi-squared and in 1907 he published an exposition of the Pearson curves
for actuaries. His sister Ethel M. Elderton
worked for Pearson, and together the Eldertons wrote an introduction to the new ideas in statistics
.
She provided financial backing for Pearson's Anthropometric Laboratory, "his fourth laboratory".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actuary
Actuary
An actuary is a business professional who deals with the financial impact of risk and uncertainty. Actuaries provide expert assessments of financial security systems, with a focus on their complexity, their mathematics, and their mechanisms ....
who served as president of the Institute of Actuaries
Institute of Actuaries
The Institute of Actuaries was one of the two professional which represented actuaries in the United Kingdom . The Institute was based in England, while the other body, the Faculty of Actuaries, was based in Scotland...
(1932–1934). Elderton also had a very long association with the statistical journal Biometrika
Biometrika
- External links :* . The Internet Archive. 2011....
. In its early days he published several articles, and in 1935 he became chairman of the Biometrika Trust.
In 1900 when he was training to be an actuary Elderton met Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
and was drawn into the University College
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...
statistical group. In 1902 Elderton computed the first tables of Pearson's chi-squared and in 1907 he published an exposition of the Pearson curves
Pearson distribution
The Pearson distribution is a family of continuous probability distributions. It was first published by Karl Pearson in 1895 and subsequently extended by him in 1901 and 1916 in a series of articles on biostatistics.- History :...
for actuaries. His sister Ethel M. Elderton
Ethel M. Elderton
Ethel Mary Elderton was a eugenics researcher who worked with Francis Galton and Karl Pearson. In 1905 she resigned her teaching post to become Galton's assistant. Subsequently she became Galton Scholar and Fellow and Assistant Professor at University College London....
worked for Pearson, and together the Eldertons wrote an introduction to the new ideas in statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
.
She provided financial backing for Pearson's Anthropometric Laboratory, "his fourth laboratory".
Books
- W. Palin Elderton (1907) Frequency-Curves and Correlation. London: Layton.
- W. Palin Elderton and Ethel M. Elderton (1909) Primer of Statistics. London: A&C Black Ltd.
- W. Palin Elderton and Richard C. Fippard (1914)The Construction of Mortality and Sickness Tables : a Primer. London : A. & C. Black.
Papers
- William Palin Elderton (1949): A few statistics on the length of English words. In: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (General), Vol. CXII, Part IV, p. 436-445.
Elderton's work
- Karl-Heinz Best (2009): Wortlängen im Englischen. In: Glottometrics 19, p. 1-10. (Review of Elderton's model of word length distributions proposing alternative models.)
- Peter Grzybek (2006): History and Methodology of Word Length Studies. The State of the Art. In: Peter Grzybek (ed.): Contributions to the Science of Text and Language: Word length studies and related issues. Dordrecht: Springer, S. 15-90. ISBN 978-1-4020-4067-2. (Grzybek discusses Elderton's model of word length distributions p. 19-26.)
Obituaries
- William P. Elderton FIA; CBE; KBE. TFA, 28 (1962-1964) p. 193-195.
- William P. Elderton FIA; CBE; KBE. JIA, 88 (1962) p. 245-251.
- E. S. Pearson William Palin Elderton (1877–1962), Biometrika, 49, (1962), 297-303.
- Best, Karl-Heinz (2009): William Palin Elderton (1877-1962). In: Glottometrics 19, p. 99-101. (In German)
- F. A. A. Menzler Sir William Palin Elderton, 1877–1962, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), Vol. 125, No. 4 (1962), pp. 669–672