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

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

. Tippett was born in London but spent most of his early life in Cornwall 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. He studied for his Master of Science in statistics under

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

at the

Galton Laboratory The Galton Laboratory was a laboratory for research into eugenics and then into human genetics based at University College London in London, England. It was originally established in 1904, and became part of UCL's biology department in 1996. The a ...

, University College London 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, Manchester becoming in 1952 one of the first Assistant Directors. Along with

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 a ...

and

Emil Gumbel Emil Julius Gumbel (18 July 1891, in Munich – 10 September 1966, in New York City) was a German mathematician and political writer. Gumbel specialised in mathematical statistics and, along with Leonard Tippett and Ronald Fisher, was instrume ...

, he pioneered extreme value theory. The

Fisher–Tippett distribution In probability theory and statistics, the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution is a family of continuous probability distributions developed within extreme value theory to combine the Gumbel distribution, Gumbel, Fréchet distribution, F ...

is named after him. At the Shirley Institute he applied statistics to the problem of yarn breakage rates in weaving. 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. In 1965 he retired to

St Austell St Austell (; kw, Sans Austel) is a town in Cornwall, England, south of Bodmin and west of the border with Devon. St Austell is one of the largest towns in Cornwall; at the 2011 census it had a population of 19,958. History St Austell wa ...

, Cornwall and in this period became an UNIDO consultant, being active in India. 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 The ''St Matthew Passion'' (german: Matthäus-Passion, links=-no), BWV 244, is a '' Passion'', a sacred oratorio written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1727 for solo voices, double choir and double orchestra, with libretto by Picander. It sets ...

Awards

*Warner Medal of the

Textile Institute The Textile Institute is a professional body for those engaged in clothing, footwear, and textile's whose headquarters are at 8th Floor St James's Buildings, 79 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 6FQ, UK. The institute was founded in 1910 and incorpora ...

* Fellow of the American Statistical Association, 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 biennia ...

in Silver of the Royal Statistical Society, 1954 *Honorary MSc UMIST *President of the Manchester Statistical Society *President of the Royal Statistical Society, 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. Series A (General)'', Vol. 145, No. 2, pp. 261–262. * J. E. Ford (1986)
L.H.C. Tippett, 1902-1985
'' Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. 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