Joshua Milne (1776–1851), was an English

actuary An actuary is a professional with advanced mathematical skills who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require investment management, asset management, ...

Life

He was appointed actuary to the Sun Life Assurance Society on 15 June 1810, and reconstructed the

life table In actuarial science and demography, a life table (also called a mortality table or actuarial table) is a table which shows, for each age, the probability that a person of that age will die before their next birthday ("probability of death"). In ...

s then in use. He gave evidence before the select committee on the laws respecting friendly societies (1825 and 1827). By 1839 Milne had lost interest in the values of life contingencies, and turned to

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

; he is said to have possessed one of the best botanical libraries in London. He resigned his position in the Sun Life Office on 19 December 1843, and died at

Upper Clapton Clapton is a district of east London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross. Geography and orig ...

on 4 January 1851. He was buried on the western side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...

Actuarial works

When Milne entered the field, life tables were based on the data taken by

Richard Price Richard Price (23 February 1723 – 19 April 1791) was a British moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal causes such as the F ...

from the burial registers (1735–80) of

All Saints' Church, Northampton All Saints' Church, Northampton is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Northampton. The current church was largely built after a fire and was consecrated in 1680. It is a Grade I listed building. History Simon de Senlis' church ...

. Milne took as the basis of his calculations the

bills of mortality Bills of mortality were the weekly mortality statistics in London, designed to monitor burials from 1592 to 1595 and then continuously from 1603. The responsibility to produce the statistics was chartered in 1611 to the Worshipful Company of Pari ...

from

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

, which had been prepared by John Heysham. After a long correspondence (12 September 1812 – 14 June 1814) with Heysham, he published his major work ''A Treatise on the Valuation of Annuities and Assurances'' (1815). Milne's new "Carlisle table" marked an epoch in

actuarial science Actuarial science is the discipline that applies mathematics, mathematical and statistics, statistical methods to Risk assessment, assess risk in insurance, pension, finance, investment and other industries and professions. Actuary, Actuaries a ...

. Considering the narrow base of data from which he had to work, it was quite accurate, and was widely adopted by insurance societies. The Carlisle Table was largely superseded by that published by the

Institute of Actuaries The Institute of Actuaries was one of the two professional bodies 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. While the Institute a ...

in 1870. But it was still considered useful in the early 20th century. Subsequent writers built on Milne's work. He was the first to compute accurately, at the cost of heavy algebra, the value of fines (i.e. payments to be made at the successive deaths of persons). His notation for the expression of life contingencies suggested that of

Augustus De Morgan Augustus De Morgan (27 June 1806 – 18 March 1871) was a British mathematician and logician. He is best known for De Morgan's laws, relating logical conjunction, disjunction, and negation, and for coining the term "mathematical induction", the ...

in his ''Essay on Probabilities''. Milne also contributed to the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica, fourth edition An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries that are arranged alphabetically by articl ...

'', articles on "Annuities", "Bills of Mortality", and "Law of Mortality".The last was reprinted in 1827 (''Report from the Select Committee on the Laws respecting Friendly Societies'', 1827, App. G 3), together with a statement on the Carlisle and Northampton tables of mortality (App. B).

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Milne, Joshua 1776 births 1851 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 19th-century English mathematicians British actuaries