Leonard Henry Caleb Tippett (8 May 1902 – 9 November 1985), known professionally as L. H. C. Tippett, was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

. Tippett was born in London but spent most of his early life in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and attended St Austell County Grammar School, where his contemporaries included the historian

A. L. Rowse Alfred Leslie Rowse (4 December 1903 – 3 October 1997) was a British historian and writer, best known for his work on Elizabethan England and books relating to Cornwall. Born in Cornwall and raised in modest circumstances, he was encourag ...

. Tippett graduated in physics in the early 1920s from

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. He studied for his

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in statistics under

Karl Pearson Karl Pearson (; born Carl Pearson; 27 March 1857 – 27 April 1936) was an English biostatistician and mathematician. He has been credited with establishing the discipline of mathematical statistics. He founded the world's first university ...

at the

Galton Laboratory The Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics was a laboratory established for the research of eugenics, later to the study of biometry and statistics, and eventually human genetics based at University College London (UCL) in London, England. The ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

and

R. A. Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British polymath who was active as a mathematician, statistician, biologist, geneticist, and academic. For his work in statistics, he has been described as "a genius who ...

at Rothamsted. He spent his entire career, 1925 to 1965, on the staff of the

Shirley Institute The Shirley Institute was established in 1920 as the British Cotton Industry Research Association at The Towers in Didsbury, Manchester, as a research centre dedicated to cotton production technologies. It was funded by the Cotton Board throug ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

becoming in 1952 one of the first Assistant Directors. Along with R.A. Fisher and Emil Gumbel, he pioneered

extreme value theory Extreme value theory or extreme value analysis (EVA) is the study of extremes in statistical distributions. It is widely used in many disciplines, such as structural engineering, finance, economics, earth sciences, traffic prediction, and Engin ...

. The Fisher–Tippett distribution is named after him. At the Shirley Institute he applied statistics to the problem of

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. '' Thread'' is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern ...

breakage rates in

weaving Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal ...

. In the late 1920s and 1930s, he became known for his 'snap-reading' method of observation which led to improved production efficiency and operative utilization. As a result of his work in the textile industry, he was awarded the Shewart Medal of the American Society for Quality Control. Tippett published "Random Sampling Numbers" in 1927 and thus invented the

random number table Random number tables have been used in statistics for tasks such as selected randomness, random samples. This was much more effective than manually selecting the random samples (with dice, cards, etc.). Nowadays, tables of random numbers have bee ...

. In 1965 he retired to

St Austell Saint Austell (, ; ) is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. At the 2021 Census in the United Kingdom, census it had a population of 20,900. History St Austell was a village centred ...

and in this period became an

UNIDO The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (French: Organisation des Nations unies pour le développement industriel; French/Spanish acronym: ONUDI) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that assists countries in ...

consultant, being active in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He died in 1985 after being hit by a van whilst walking from his home to the St. Austell Choral Society to sing in the St. Matthew Passion.

Awards

*Warner Medal of the Textile Institute *

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The designation of ASA Fellow has been a sign ...

, 1950View/Search Fellows of the ASA
, accessed 2016-07-23. *

Guy Medal The Guy Medals are awarded by the Royal Statistical Society in three categories; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The Silver and Bronze medals are awarded annually. The Gold Medal was awarded every three years between 1987 and 2011, but is awarded bienni ...

in Silver of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

, 1954 *Honorary MSc

UMIST The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...

*President of the

Manchester Statistical Society The Manchester Statistical Society is a learned society founded in 1833 in Manchester, England. It has a distinguished history, having played an important part in researching economic and social conditions using social surveys. It continues to ...

*President of the

, 1965 *Shewart Medal of the American Society for Quality Control

Books

*''Random Sampling Numbers'', CUP, London, 1927 *''Statistics'', The Home University Library of Modern Knowledge, Oxford University Press, London, 1943 *''Methods of Statistics'', Williams & Norgate Ltd., London, 1931, 1948, 1952 *''Statistical Methods for Textile Technologists'', by T. Murphy, K. P. Norris, L. H. C. Tippett, Textile Institute, Manchester, 1960, 1963, 1973, 1979 *''A Portrait of the Lancashire Textile Industry'', OUP, London 1969

References

* H. E. Daniels (1982)
A Tribute to L.H.C. Tippett
''

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Oxford University Press for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of ...

. Series A (General)'', Vol. 145, No. 2, pp. 261–262. * J. E. Ford (1986)
L.H.C. Tippett, 1902-1985
''

. Series A (General)'', Vol. 149, No. 1, p. 44. (obituary) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tippett, L. H. C. 1902 births 1985 deaths Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of University College London English statisticians People from St Austell Fellows of the American Statistical Association Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society 20th-century American mathematicians People educated at St Austell Grammar School British mathematical statisticians