The S-Branch was a small group of academic economists in the UK, established in 1939 at the Admiralty by

Frederick Lindemann Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, ( ; 5 April 18863 July 1957) was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II. Lindemann was a brilliant intellectual, who cut through burea ...

. Its role was to report directly to prime minister Winston Churchill distilling complex data into succinct charts and figures, to aid speedy evaluation. Members of the S-Branch included Sir

Roy Harrod Sir Henry Roy Forbes Harrod (13 February 1900 – 8 March 1978) was an English economist. He is best known for writing '' The Life of John Maynard Keynes'' (1951) and for the development of the Harrod–Domar model, which he and Evsey Domar dev ...

G. L. S. Shackle George Lennox Sharman Shackle (14 July 1903 – 3 March 1992) was an English economist. He made a practical attempt to challenge classical rational choice theory and has been characterised as a "post-Keynesian", though he is influenced as well b ...

Helen Makower Helen Makower (1 June 1910 in London – 17 May 1998 in Marlborough, Wiltshire) was a British economist. She was the daughter of the writer and music critic Stanley Makower. Graduating from Newnham College, Cambridge (M.A. Oxon, inc. awa ...

and later,

D. G. Champernowne thumbail, right David Gawen Champernowne, (9 July 1912 – 19 August 2000) was an English economist and mathematician. Champernowne was the only child of Francis Gawayne Champernowne (1866–1921), M.A. (Oxon.), a barrister and bursar of Kebl ...

and

David Bensusan-Butt David Miles Bensusan-Butt (24 July 1914, Colchester – 25 March 1994, London) was an English economist who spent much of his career in Australia. Known as David, he published his work as D. M. Bensusan-Butt. Background and education A nephew ...

. The operation of this statistical branch often caused tensions between government departments, but it was important because it allowed Churchill to make quick decisions based on accurate data.Harcourt, G. C. (1981) Notes on an Economic Querist: G. L. S. Shackle, ''Journal of Post Keynesian Economics'', Vol. 4, No. 1, Autumn, pp. 136-144

References

{{Reflist Economic history of the United Kingdom