Fellows will be sad to learn that former RSS President Peter Armitage passed away on 14 February 2024, at the age of 99.
Peter was born on 15 June 1924 in Huddersfield. He attended Huddersfield College and went to Trinity College, Cambridge in January 1941 where he took Part I of the Mathematical Tripos. Following his war service, Peter completed Part II of the Tripos, and graduated with first class honours in 1947.
Peter worked as a statistician for the Medical Research Council from 1947 to 1961. He was Professor of Medical Statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine from 1961 to 1976, succeeding Austin Bradford Hill. He later moved to Oxford University as Professor of Biomathematics and became Professor of Applied Statistics and head of the new Department of Statistics, retiring in 1990.
Peter was President of the RSS from 1982 to 1984, and his tenure included the many celebrations that occurred as part of the Society’s 150th anniversary. He was also Honorary Secretary from 1958 to 1964, a member of Council for twenty years and Chair of both the Medical Section and the Research Section. His contributions to the Society and to the statistics profession were recognized in 1984 when he was awarded a CBE. In 1990, Peter became only the second person to have received Guy Medals in Gold, Silver and Bronze.
Peter was President of the Biometric Society (now the International Biometric Society) from 1972–73 and of the International Society for Clinical Biostatistics from 1990–1991. In 1991, he was elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and, in 1987, was awarded the J Allyn Taylor Prize from the Robarts Research Institute.
His classic textbook, Statistical Methods in Medical Research, remains in print today, more 50 years after its initial publication.
Our sincere condolences go out to Peter’s family and friends at this time. A full obituary will be published in a forthcoming edition of our Series A journal.