Sir George Handley Knibbs (13 June 1858 – 30 March 1929)Bambrick, S.

. ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 620-621. Retrieved 24 August 2009 was an Australian scientist, the first Commonwealth Statistician and the first director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry, predecessor to the

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentar ...

. He was nicknamed "the Knibb".

Early life

Knibbs was born in Frederick Place,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, son of John Handley Knibbs, foreman, and his wife Ellen ''

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

'' Curthoys.

Career

Knibbs joined the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Land Survey Department in 1877 and in January 1878 was appointed a licensed surveyor. In 1889 Knibbs resigned to take up private practice as a surveyor, and in 1890 became lecturer in surveying at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. Knibbs was elected a member of the

Royal Society of New South Wales The Royal Society of New South Wales is a learned society based in Sydney, Australia. The Governor of New South Wales is the vice-regal patron of the Society. The Society was established as the Philosophical Society of Australasia on 27 June ...

in 1881, became a member of the council in 1894, from 1896 to 1906 was almost continuously honorary secretary, and in 1898-9 was president. Knibbs was also taking an active interest in other societies, and was president of the Institution of Surveyors at Sydney for four years in the period between 1892 and 1901, and president of the New South Wales branch and a member of the

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

in 1897–8. Knibbs had begun contributing papers to the Royal Society of New South Wales at an early age, at first on matters arising out of surveying, and then on problems of physics. In his presidential address delivered on 3 May 1899 Knibbs showed that he had spent time studying mathematics. In 1902 and 1903, as a royal commissioner on education, Knibbs travelled through Europe and furnished a valuable report, which led to his being appointed Director of Technical Education for New South Wales in 1905. He was also in this year acting professor of physics at the

First statistician

In 1906 the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics was created and Knibbs became its first director. He was the first Statistician for the commonwealth census in 1911. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Knibbs was on the Royal Commission dealing with problems of trade and industry, and was a consulting member of the committee on munitions of war. In 1920 Knibbs played a leading role at the British Empire Statistical Conference in London. In March 1921 he was made director of the newly founded Institute of Science and Industry, a forerunner to the

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO ...

(CSIRO). At the 1921 meeting of the

Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) is an organisation that was founded in 1888 as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science. It was modelled on the British As ...

Knibbs was president of the Social and Statistical Science Section, and took as the subject of his address "Statistics in regard to World and Empire development". Two years later he was president of the association and spoke on "Science and its service to man". Knibbs resigned his directorship of the Institute of Science and Industry in 1926, and lived in retirement until his death of coronary vascular disease at

Camberwell, Victoria Camberwell is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 9 km east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Boroondara local government area. Camberwell recorded a population of 21,965 at the 2021 census. The ...

, a suburb of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, on 30 March 1929.

Recognition

Knibbs was created a Companion of the

Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George IV, George IV, Prince of Wales, while he was acting as prince regent for his father, George III, King George III. ...

(CMG) in 1911 and was

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

ed in 1923.

Publications

He contributed 29 papers to the

, and several of his monographs, largely on statistical subjects (''The Mathematical Theory of Population'', ''The Census of Wealth''), were published as pamphlets; also monographs on pure mathematics, geodesy, and geodetical instruments. In 1913 he published a volume of verse, ''Voices of the North and Echoes of Hellas'', largely translations, carefully written but not important as poetry, and in 1928 appeared a work on population, ''The Shadow of the World's Future''. He also published ''Design of the Federal Capital''

References