Claus Adolf Moser, Baron Moser, (24 November 1922 – 4 September 2015) was a British

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 ...

who made major contributions in both academia and the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

. He prided himself rather on being a non-mathematical statistician, and said that the thing that frightened him most in his life was when Maurice Kendall asked him to teach a course on

analysis of variance Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is a family of statistical methods used to compare the Mean, means of two or more groups by analyzing variance. Specifically, ANOVA compares the amount of variation ''between'' the group means to the amount of variati ...

at the LSE.

Life

Claus Adolf Moser was born in Berlin in 1922. His father was Dr Ernst (Ernest) Moser (1885–1957), owner of the private bank Ernst Moser & Co. in Berlin (est. 1902,

liquidated Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...

in 1938). His mother was Lotte (née Goldberg, 1897–1976), a talented amateur musician. In 1936 he moved to England with his parents and his brother Heinz Peter August. He went to Frensham Heights School and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

(LSE). Despite being Jewish, in 1940, he was

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

as an

enemy alien In customary international law, an enemy alien is any alien native, citizen, denizen or subject of any foreign nation or government with which a domestic nation or government is in conflict and who is liable to be apprehended, restrained, secur ...

in Huyton Camp. After four months, he was released and served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, 1943–1946. He then returned to LSE as Assistant Lecturer, then Lecturer, in Statistics, 1946–1955; Reader in

Social Statistics Social statistics is the use of statistics, statistical measurement systems to study human behavior in a social environment. This can be accomplished through opinion poll, polling a group of people, evaluating a subset of data obtained about a gro ...

, 1955–1961; Professor of Social Statistics, 1961–1970; Visiting Professor of Social Statistics, 1970–1975. In 1965 he was elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. He was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 1965 New Year Honours, and in 1965, he applied for a job at the Central Statistical Office but was rejected, as a former enemy alien. However, this did not seem to be a problem when in 1967

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx (11 March 1916 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...

appointed him Director of the Central Statistical Office. He was made a Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB) in the 1973 New Year Honours. He resigned as Director of the Central Statistical Office in 1978. He held a very wide variety of posts. These included: * Member, Governing Body,

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, 1967–1979 * Director, Central Statistical Office, 1968–1978 *

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Music Advisory Committee, 1971–1983 * Visiting Fellow,

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

, 1972–1980 * Chairman,

Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House (ROH) is a theatre in Covent Garden, central London. The building is often referred to as simply Covent Garden, after a previous use of the site. The ROH is the main home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, and the Orch ...

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...

, 1974–1987 * Director, N M Rothschild & Sons, 1978–1990 (Vice-chairman, 1978–1984) * President,

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. ...

, 1978–1980 * Chairman, Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979–1983 * Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, 1984–1993 * Chancellor,

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

, 1986–2002 * Trustee,

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

, 1988–2000 * President,

British Association for the Advancement of Science The British Science Association (BSA) is a Charitable organization, charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Scienc ...

, 1989–1990 * Pro-Vice-Chancellor,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, 1991–1993 * Chairman,

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

Development Trust, 1993–2003, later Chairman Emeritus * Chancellor,

Open University of Israel The Open University of Israel (, ''Ha-Universita ha-Ptuha'') is a distance education, distance-education university in Israel. It is one of ten public universities in Israel recognized by the Council of Higher Education (CHE). Open University ...

, 1994–2004 He was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

with the title Baron Moser, of Regents Park in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...

on 23 June 2001. Other honours included the Albert Medal of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

, 1996, Commandeur de l'

Ordre National du Mérite The (; ) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's establishment was twofold: to replace the large number of ...

(France), 1976; Commander's Cross,

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

(Germany), 1985. Moser also received an Honorary Doctorate from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University () is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and was subsequently granted university status by roya ...

in 1995. While on holidays Moser died in

Chur '' Chur (locally) or ; ; ; ; ; ; or ; , and . is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, town of the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of the Grisons and lies in the Alpine Rhine, Grisonian Rhine Valley, where ...

(

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

) on 4 September 2015, following a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

The Claus Moser Research Centre

Moser was honorary Chancellor at

at a time of rapid change after funding cuts in the early 80s, and appointment of a full-time vice-chancellor to reduce staff / student ratios further after that first emergency. Keele's funding per student was reduced by a third and Oxford's by a thirtieth from similar amounts per head in the 70s. In 1997 Moser participated in a ceremony to mark the start of construction of the Claus Moser Research Centre, a dedicated research facility for the Humanities and Social Sciences. He returned to the university in June 2008 to participate in the official opening of the £3.5m building.Keele University Facebook bulletin

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

References

External links

Portraits of Statisticians
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moser, Claus 1922 births 2015 deaths People from Berlin People educated at Frensham Heights School Alumni of the London School of Economics Chancellors of Keele University Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Directors of the Central Statistical Office (United Kingdom) Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of Nuffield College, Oxford Wardens of Wadham College, Oxford Pro-vice-chancellors of the University of Oxford Fellows of the British Academy Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath People associated with the Royal Academy of Music Peers recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany British people of Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom Presidents of the British Science Association Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics Neurological disease deaths in Switzerland Rothschild & Co people Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Life

The Claus Moser Research Centre

See also

References

External links