Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: John Ronald Beresford King was born on 3 December 1942 to Ron and Edna King in Watford, Hertfordshire, England and spent his childhood there. He attended Chater Primary School prior to Watford Boys Grammar School. He died in London on 17 September 2024, aged 81. John obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics, at the London School Economics of the University of London in 1964. His studies included mathematics and statistics where he would have been taught by such luminaries as Sir Claus Moser, Alan Stuart, and Jim Durbin. In the following year, he remained at the London School of Economics, earning a Master of Science in Economics. John had an incredibly varied career. He started as a Lecturer at City University in London. He worked there from 1965 to 1975 at a range of different locations including a 3-year secondment to the Civil Service College. He then joined the Statistics Division of the UK Overseas Development Administration (ODA) as a statistician, staying until 1993 and making many life-long friends. During this time, he developed a very broad knowledge of official statistics including complex areas like the national accounts and balance of payments. His work included assignments in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. A clear highlight was his secondment from ODA as the Government Statistician for Fiji from 1980 to 1984, following work he had done previously on the Fijian national accounts and balance of payments. He then moved to the UK Central Statistical Office in 1993, which subsequently became the Office of National Statistics (ONS). He remained there until he retired in 2002. He was initially employed as a Director of the Family Expenditure Survey and many different assignments followed. For the last 2 years of his time at ONS, he worked at Eurostat in Luxembourg as the detached national expert on statistical confidentiality and disclosure control. Following retirement from the ONS, he undertook various consultancy tasks mostly in Africa. Many involved teaching, an activity that John enjoyed throughout his career. John moved to Australia with his family in 2004. He continued working and took on some consultancy jobs, including a project on the modernization of the Indonesian Statistics Office on which I was also involved. Whilst in Australia, he had an extended stay in hospital after breaking both his feet from a fall when cleaning high windows. On my first visit to the hospital, I asked whether he would like me to bring him any books. His choice of light reading was Gullberg’s 1093-page volume on Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers! John really enjoyed mathematics throughout his life. He returned to England in 2012, around the time of his 70th birthday. John was a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. He was a RSS Council member from 1977 to 1980 including being Honorary Secretary in 1980. Earlier he had been Secretary (1973–1976) and Chairman (1977–1978) of the General Applications Section. He was greatly valued for his good sense, his broad view of statistics, and his commitment to the Society. He was a long-time member of the Statistical Dinner Club. He joined when he was quite young and attended the monthly dinners on a regular basis until just before his death. He really enjoyed the dinners, and the opportunity to catch up with fellow statisticians who worked across different fields. He was Treasurer for quite a few years too. John was much loved by his colleagues. In their tributes to him, there were common themes. He was described as a perfect gentleman but very sociable with a dry sense of humour. He never had a bad word to say about people. He was thoughtful and intelligent, meticulous, systematic and unrushed, with careful attention to detail, and had the capacity to handle complex mathematics. He was an excellent teacher and communicator. John was an avid reader of The Guardian and The Economist—not just the headlines but every printed word. Consequently, he often did not finish an issue before the next arrived creating a stockpile which he would try to reduce whilst on holidays. He loved music, particularly opera and organ music. He was partial to a good wine. In his younger days, he enjoyed regular outings with the Hash House Harriers including the post-running celebrations. He had a fine collection of their T shirts from around the world. He also enjoyed playing squash. John married Debbie in 1983. They met in unusual circumstances—John was a patient at the London Hospital for Tropical Diseases suffering gastric problems after an ODA assignment in Nepal. Debbie was one of his nurses. They were different personalities but complemented each other. They had one son, John Henry who inherited his father’s mathematical genes, much to John’s delight. He lived an incredibly interesting life and certainly left the world a better place. Dennis Trewin August 2025
Author: Dennis Trewin
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4414367382
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