Ernest Charles Snow

Ernest Charles Snow CBE was born in Woodford, Essex on 12 March 1886. He was educated at East London College. In 1902 Snow won an Open Mathematical Scholarship at The Queen’s College, Oxford.

During the First World War, Snow worked as a statistician at the War Office and in 1919 became the Manager and later the Director of the United Tanners' Association.

During his tenure, he wrote several books and papers such as the 440-page volume "Leather, Hides, Skin and Tanning Material" in 1924.^[1]

Snow was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours of 1938.

There are many articles by Dr Snow published in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. One of his last (and the Presidential Address) was in 1944 – "The International Comparison of Industrial Output".

Snow died on 28 August 1959.

Snow was the son of Henry and Margaret Snow, of Woodford, Essex He was educated at East London College. In 1902 he acquired an Open Mathematical Scholarship at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 1905 he obtained a First Class in Moderations and in 1906 a First Class in the final Mathematics School.

In September 1907, Snow took up an appointment as full-time Lecturer in Mathematics at the Sir John Cass College.^[2]

Academia

In 1911 the Senate of the University of London approved the recognition of Snow as a Teacher of the University in Mathematics.

In 1912 Snow was awarded a D.Sc for his thesis – "The Intensity of Natural Selection in Man" and other papers.^[3] From 1912 to 1915, Snow was a part-time postgraduate student at University College. He engaged on research in association with Karl Pearson.

In 1915 Snow was asked by the War Office to assist temporarily with statistical work in the Allies' Commission Section of the Army Contracts Department. As his responsibilities at the War Office increased, his work at the College diminished until by mid-1918 he was lecturing only two or three evenings a week.^[2]

Contribution to the leather industry

His work at the War Office, Leather Control, so impressed the tanners that in 1919 he was asked to take over the management of the United Tanners' Federation, of which he later became Director.

Snow was appointed Leather Controller, a position he held from 1939 to 1946. He returned as Director of the Federation until he retired in 1953. This was only a partial retirement as he continued to hold several subsidiary appointments until October 1958, the most important being that of Secretary of the International Council of Tanners, a body which he had been largely instrumental in forming in 1926 and in reviving after the Second World War.

When, in 1939, just before the Second World War, the Board of Trade was considering plans for Controls in "a possible emergency" they turned to Snow as Controller-designate. When it became necessary to put the machinery into action, the Controller was informed that Leather Control would be located at Burton-on-Trent.

Snow realised, far more clearly than the official machine, that so long as the Government and the general direction of policy was centred on London, Leather Control could only be conducted efficiently if the Controller remained in London. He turned a blind eye to official pressure and bombing alike and stayed put.

When, in 1943, a crisis in hide supplies for the U.S.A., Canada and the U.K. loomed ahead, Snow put forward a formula for sharing the available supplies, which was duly passed on to the Americans where it met with a frigid reception. A mission of five came over to negotiate, with an open mind on all possible solutions except one – the Snow formula. Three weeks later they returned, quite content to have eaten their words; the Snow formula operated un-criticised until allocations finally ceased – a tribute to the Controller's ability and persuasiveness.

He returned as Director of the Federation until 1953. Amongst other appointments, he became Secretary of the International Council of Tanners, a body which he had been largely instrumental in forming in 1926 and in reviving after the Second World War.^[2]

Contribution to the Royal Statistical Society

Snow was elected a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 1910.

In 1930 Snow was appointed Joint Honorary Secretary of the Royal Statistical Society.

In 1935, when he already had seven papers to his name, Dr Snow was awarded the Guy Medal in Silver.

Snow was appointed President of the Royal Statistical Society in 1943 and served until 1945.

Snow was the 26th President in the 20th century, the four preceding Presidents were Arthur Lyon Bowley, Henry William Macrosty, Hector Leak, and William Beveridge. The four Presidents that followed Snow were The Lord Woolton, David Heron, Sir Geoffrey Heyworth, and Austin Bradford Hill.

Apart from his inaugural Presidential Address, Snow read nine papers before the Society.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11]

In addition to the papers to the Society, Snow also contributed papers to Biometrika such as "The Application of the Correlation Coefficient to Mendilian Distributions"^[12] and Proceedings, such as "The influence of selection and assortative mating on the ancestral and fraternal correlations of a mendelian population"^[13]

Snow also wrote several articles including "On the Magnitude of the Population of England and Wales Available for Emigration",^[14] "The Limits of Industrial Employment",^[15] "The Statistical Basis of Export Targets",^[16] "Some Statistical Problems Suggested by the Sickness and Mortality Data of Certain of the Large Friendly Societies",^[17] "Trade Forecasting and Prices",^[18] "The Application of the Method of Multiple Correlation to the Estimation of Post-Censal Populations",^[19] and "Note on the Future Population of the Self-Governing Portion of the British Empire".^[20]

John Aldrich (Economics Division. School of Social Sciences. University of Southampton) in his paper: "Mathematics in the London Royal Statistical Society 1834-1934" for the Journal Electronique d'Histoire des Probabilités et de la Statistique refers to Dr Snow's contributions over 30 times.^[21]

When Snow died on 28 August 1959, his obituary was published by the Royal Statistical Society.^[2]

v t e Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society
19th century	1834–1836 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1836–1838 Sir Charles Lemon, Bt 1838–1840 The Earl FitzWilliam 1840–1842 Viscount Sandon 1842–1843 The Marquess of Lansdowne 1843–1845 Lord Ashley 1845–1847 The Lord Monteagle of Brandon 1847–1849 The Earl FitzWilliam 1849–1851 The Earl of Harrowby 1851–1853 The Lord Overstone 1853–1855 The Earl FitzWilliam 1855–1857 The Earl of Harrowby 1857–1859 Lord Stanley 1859–1861 Lord John Russell 1861–1863 Sir John Pakington, Bt 1863–1865 William Henry Sykes 1865–1867 The Lord Houghton 1867–1869 William Ewart Gladstone 1869–1871 William Newmarch 1871–1873 William Farr 1873–1875 William Guy 1875–1877 James Heywood 1877–1879 George Shaw-Lefevre 1879–1880 Thomas Brassey 1880–1882 James Caird 1882–1884 Robert Giffen 1884–1886 Rawson W. Rawson 1886–1888 George Goschen 1888–1890 Thomas Graham Balfour 1890–1892 Frederic J. Mouat 1892–1894 Charles Booth 1894–1896 The Lord Farrer 1896–1897 John Biddulph Martin 1897 Alfred Edmund Bateman 1897–1899 Leonard Courtney 1899–1900 Henry Fowler 1900–1902 The Lord Avebury
20th century	1902–1904 Patrick George Craigie 1904–1905 Sir Francis Powell, Bt 1905–1906 The Earl of Onslow 1906–1907 Richard Martin 1907–1909 Sir Charles Dilke, Bt 1909–1910 Jervoise Athelstane Baines 1910–1912 Lord George Hamilton 1912–1914 Francis Ysidro Edgeworth 1914–1915 The Lord Welby 1915–1916 Lord George Hamilton 1916–1918 Bernard Mallet, Registrar General 1918–1920 Herbert Samuel 1920–1922 R. Henry Rew 1922–1924 The Lord Emmott 1924–1926 Udny Yule 1926–1928 The Viscount D'Abernon 1928–1930 A. William Flux 1930–1932 Sir Josiah Stamp 1932–1934 The Lord Meston 1934–1936 Major Greenwood 1936–1938 The Lord Kennet 1938–1940 Arthur Lyon Bowley 1940–1941 Henry William Macrosty 1941 Hector Leak 1941–1943 William Beveridge 1943–1945 Ernest Charles Snow 1945–1947 The Lord Woolton 1947–1949 David Heron 1949–1950 Sir Geoffrey Heyworth 1950–1952 Austin Bradford Hill 1952–1954 Ronald Fisher 1954–1955 The Lord Piercy 1955–1957 Egon Pearson 1957–1959 Harry Campion 1959–1960 Hugh Beaver 1960–1962 Maurice Kendall 1962–1964 Joseph Oscar Irwin 1964–1965 Sir Paul Chambers 1965–1966 L. H. C. Tippett 1966–1967 M. S. Bartlett 1967–1968 Frank Yates 1968–1969 Arthur Cockfield 1969–1970 R. G. D. Allen 1970–1971 Bernard Benjamin 1971–1972 George Alfred Barnard 1972–1973 Harold Wilson 1973–1974 D. J. Finney 1974–1975 Henry Daniels 1975–1977 Stella Cunliffe 1977–1978 Henry Wynn 1978–1980 Sir Claus Moser 1980–1982 David Cox 1982–1984 Peter Armitage 1984–1985 Walter Bodmer 1985–1986 John Nelder 1986–1987 James Durbin 1987–1989 John Kingman 1989–1991 Peter G. Moore 1991–1993 T. M. F. Smith 1993–1995 D. J. Bartholomew 1995–1997 Adrian Smith 1997–1999 Robert Nicholas Curnow 1999–2001 Denise Lievesley
21st century	2001–2003 Peter Green 2003–2005 Andy Grieve 2005–2007 Tim Holt 2008–2009 David Hand 2010–2010 Bernard Silverman (resigned Feb 2010; replaced pro tem by David Hand) 2011–2012 Valerie Isham 2013–2014 John Pullinger 2014–2016 Peter Diggle 2017–2018 David Spiegelhalter 2019– Deborah Ashby
Category List

Ernest Charles Snow

Academia

Contribution to the leather industry

Contribution to the Royal Statistical Society

References

Related Articles

Related Articles

"The Application of the Method of Multiple Correlation to the Estimation of Post-Censal Populations"

"Some Observations on Trade Forecasting and Prices"

"The Relative Importance of Export Trade"

"Some Statistical Problems Suggested by the Sickness and Mortality Data of Certain of the Large Friendly Societies"

"The Limits of Industrial Employment"

"The Limits of Industrial Employment (II). The Influence of Growth of Population on the Development of Industry"

"Trade Forecasting and Prices"

"A Discussion, Opened by Dr. E. C. Snow, M.A., at the Meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, December 15, 1931"

"The influence of selection and assortative mating on the ancestral and fraternal correlations of a mendelian population"

"On the Magnitude of the Population of England and Wales Available for Emigration"

"The Limits of Industrial Employment"

"The Statistical Basis of Export Targets"

"Some Statistical Problems Suggested by the Sickness and Mortality Data of Certain of the Large Friendly Societies"

"Trade Forecasting and Prices"

"The Application of the Method of Multiple Correlation to the Estimation of Post-Censal Populations"

"Note on the Future Population of the Self-Governing Portion of the British Empire"