John Archibald Venn (10 November 1883 – 15 March 1958) was a British

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

. He was President of

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

, from 1932 until his death, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University 1941–1943, university archivist, and author, with his father, of ''

Alumni Cantabrigienses ''Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900'' is a biographical register of former members of the University of Cambridge whic ...

''. His father was logician

John Venn John Venn, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, FSA (4 August 1834 – 4 April 1923) was an English mathematician, logician and philosopher noted for introducing Venn diagrams, which are used in l ...

(the creator of the

Venn diagram A Venn diagram is a widely used diagram style that shows the logical relation between set (mathematics), sets, popularized by John Venn (1834–1923) in the 1880s. The diagrams are used to teach elementary set theory, and to illustrate simple ...

). Venn was educated at

Eastbourne College Eastbourne College is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition, for boarding school, boarding and Day school, day pupils aged 13–18, in ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

. He took his honours in the History Tripos in 1904–1905. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he was a lieutenant for three years in the Cambridgeshire Regiment and then served as a statistician in the Food Production Department. He served on the Scientific Council of the

International Institute of Agriculture The International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) was the first organization to systematically produce and exchange global data on crops, cultivated land, and trade flows. The late 19th century called for a demand in worldwide data on production, st ...

and many other Departmental committees of the Ministry of Agriculture. Venn was elected a Fellow in 1927 and had been a Junior Fellow and Bursar at Queens' before being elected president on the death of Thomas Cecil Fitzpatrick in 1932. At the time he was the youngest Head of a college in Cambridge. He was also the Gilbey Lecturer in Agriculture. The Guyanese writer Arthur Seymour was visiting Venn in the Queens' College Presidential Lodge when Venn showed Seymour the proofs of ''Alumni Cantabrigienses''. Thirty years later the memory of seeing these proofs inspired Seymour to propose the creation of a ''Guyana National Encyclopedia'' modelled on the Australian National Encyclopedia. Although Seymour failed to gain financial support for the project, Venn's example did inspire Seymour to publish two volumes of the ''Dictionary of Guyanese Biography'' which were published in 1984 and 1986. Venn is buried at Trumpington Churchyard Extension, South Cambridge, at the junction of Shelford Road and Hauxton Road. His grave located about halfway along path, on East side, shaded by trees.

References

* "VENN, John Archibald", ''Who Was Who'', A & C Black, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 200
accessed 19 Dec 2011
* "Dr J Venn Elected President", The Times (London, England), Monday, Mar 14, 1932

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venn, John Archibald 1883 births 1958 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge British Army personnel of World War I British economists Territorial Force officers Cambridgeshire Regiment officers Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge Presidents of Queens' College, Cambridge Vice-chancellors of the University of Cambridge