George James Lidstone FIA FSA

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

(1870-1952) was a British

actuary An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset man ...

who made several contributions to the field of

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ''wikt:Statistik#German, Statistik'', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of ...

. He is known for

Lidstone smoothing In statistics, additive smoothing, also called Laplace smoothing or Lidstone smoothing, is a technique used to smooth categorical data. Given a set of observation counts \textstyle from a \textstyle -dimensional multinomial distribution with ...

and Lidstone series. He served as President of the

Faculty of Actuaries The Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland was the professional body representing actuaries in Scotland. The Faculty of Actuaries was one of two actuarial bodies in the UK, the other was the Institute of Actuaries, which was a separate body in Englan ...

from 1924 to 1926.

Life

He was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

on 11 December 1870, the youngest of five children of Eliza Munnings and her husband, William Thompson Lidstone from Devon. He was educated at Birkbeck School in Clapton. He qualified as an actuary in 1891 and began working for the

Alliance Assurance Company Sun Alliance Group plc was a large insurance business with its main offices in the City of London and later Horsham. It was created in 1959 by the merger of Sun Insurance, founded in 1710, and Alliance Assurance founded in 1824. In 1996 Sun Alli ...

in 1893. He was promoted rapidly and ended as Secretary of

The Equitable Life Assurance Society The Equitable Life Assurance Society (Equitable Life), founded in 1762, is a life insurance company in the United Kingdom. The world's oldest mutual insurer, it pioneered age-based premiums based on mortality rate, laying "the framework for sci ...

in 1905. In 1913 he moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

in Scotland as Manager and Actuary of the

Scottish Widows Scottish Widows is a life insurance and pensions company located in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group. Its product range includes life assurance and pensions. The company has been providing financial services to the ...

Fund. In 1918 he was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

. His proposers were Sir Edmund Taylor Whittaker,

George MacRitchie Low George MacRitchie Low FRSE PFA (1849-1922) was a Scottish actuary. He twice served as President of the Faculty of Actuaries 1900 to 1903 and was recalled during the First World War serving a second term 1915 to 1919. Life He was born at 58 Great ...

John Horne John Horne PRSE FRS FRSE FEGS LLD (1 January 1848 – 30 May 1928) was a Scottish geologist. He served as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1915 to 1919. Life Horne was born on 1 January 1848, in Campsie, Stirlingshire, the ...

and

Cargill Gilston Knott Cargill Gilston Knott FRS, FRSE LLD (30 June 1856 – 26 October 1922) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was a pioneer in seismological research. He spent his early career in Japan. He later became a Fellow of the Royal Society, ...

. The

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

granted him an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1925. From 1929 his health failed and he stepped down from most active roles. He also went totally blind. He died in

on 12 May 1952.

Family

His wife, Florence Mary Gay, died in 1942. They lived at Hermiston House, west of Edinburgh. After his wife's death he moved to 23 Wester Coates Avenue, in Edinburgh's West End.

References

* ;Notes 1870 births 1952 deaths British actuaries Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh {{UK-statistician-stub