Knibbs, George Handley (1858 - 1929)

Summary

Sir George Knibbs was the first Commonwealth Statistician (1906-1921) and a Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry (1921-1926). He was responsible for the production of the Commonwealth Year Book, first published in 1908, and had an international reputation for his work in vital statistics. With J. W. Turner, he was appointed Commissioner for a 1902 Royal Commission into New South Wales Education.

Details

He is memorialised by the naming of Knibbs Street, Turner, Australian Capital Territory.

Chronology

1879 - 1889

Career position - Licensed Surveyor, Trigonometrical and General Survey Department of New South Wales

1881

Career position - President, Royal Society of New South Wales

1888 -

Career event - Original [founding] member, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1889 - 1905

Career position - Lecturer in Geodesy, Astronomy and Hydraulics, University of Sydney

1892

Career position - President, Institution of Surveyors

1893

Career position - President, Institution of Surveyors

1900

Career position - President, Institution of Surveyors

1902

Career position - Co-Commissioner of the Royal Commission into New South Wales Education

1903 - 1905

Career position - President, Society of Child Study in New South Wales

1905 - 1906

Career position - Director of Technical Education in New South Wales

1906 - 1921

Career position - Commonwealth Statistician

1909

Career position - President, Section G1 (Social and Statistical Science), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1911

Award - Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)

1914

Career position - Local Secretary for Melbourne, Section F (Economic Science and Statistics), British Association for the Advancement of Science Meeting

1921 -

Career position - Foundation Councillor (Economics and Statistics), Australian National Research Council

1921 - 1923

Career position - President, Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

1921 - 1926

Career position - Director, Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry

1922 -

Career position - Chairman, Commonwealth Engineering Standards Association

1923

Award - Knight Bachelor (Kt)

Related entries

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• Collins, David, Chemistry in 19th Australia - Select Bibliography, An exhibition of the Encyclopedia circa 2005 with assistance from Ailie Smith and Gavan McCarthy., eScholarship Research Centre (original publisher), Melbourne, 2009, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/ciab/ciab_ALL.html. Details

Books

• Currie, George; Graham, John, The Origins of CSIRO: Science and the Commonwealth Government, 1901-1926 (Melbourne: CSIRO, 1966), 203 pp, https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/origins-csiro. pages 38, 46, 52, 54, 105-117, 120-130, 132 (photograph), 133-134, 140, 142, 146, 148. Details

Book Sections

• Bambrick, Susan, 'Knibbs, Sir George Handley (1858-1929)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 620-621. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090623b.htm. Details
• Knibbs, G. H., 'The history and development of the statistical system of Australia' in The history of statistics, their development and progress in many countries, Koren, J., ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1918), pp. 55-81. Details

Edited Books

• Knibbs, G. H. ed., Federal handbook prepared in connection with the eighty-fourth meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Australia August 1914 (Melbourne: Government Printer, 1914), 598 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Anon, 'Obituary: Sir George Knibbs', Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 90 (372-3) (1930). Details
• Ashton, R. L., 'George Handley Knibbs, 1858-1929', Australian Journal of Science, 21 (1959), 170-173. Details
• Bambrick, Susan, 'First Commonwealth Statistician: Sir George Knibbs', Journal and Proceedings of The Royal Society of New South Wales, 102 (2) (1969), 127-135. Details
• Heyde, C. C., 'Official statistics in the late colonial period leading on to the work of the first Commonwealth Statistician, G. H. Knibbs', Australian Journal of Statistics, 30 (B) (1988), 23-43. Details
• Knibbs, G.H., 'Note on Recent Determinations of the Viscosity of Water by the Efflux Method', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, 30 (1896), 186-193. Details
• Speed, T. P., 'The role of statisticians in CSIRO: past, present and future', Australian Journal of Statistics, 30 (B) (1988), 15-34. Details
• Wickens, C. H., 'Sir George Knibbs', Economic Record, 5 (1929), 334-5. Details

Reports

• Knibbs, George H., Institute of Science and Industry, Second Annual Report of the Director: for the period 1st July, 1922 to the 31st December, 1923 (Melbourne: Commonwealth Government Printer, ). https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Institute-of-Science-and-Industry-Second-Annual-Report-1922-to-1923.pdf. Details
• Knibbs, George H., Institute of Science and Industry, First Annual Report of the Director: for the period from the date of his appointment (18th March, 1921) to the 30th June, 1922 (Melbourne: Commonwealth Government Printer, 1922). https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Institute-of-Science-and-Industry-First-Annual-Report-1921-to-1922.pdf. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/380784. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/161431246. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5540209. Details
• 'Knibbs, George (1858-1929)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-1289874. Details

Resource Sections

• 'Knibbs, George Handley', in Physics in Australia to 1945, R.W. Home, with the assistance of Paula J. Needham, Australian Science Archives Project, June 1995, http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/physics/P001075p.htm. Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_k.html. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Sherratt, Tim, 'CSIRO' in Oxford Companion to Australian History, Graeme Davison; John Hirst; Stuart Macintyre, ed. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 164-165. http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/pubs/articles/tps/csiro_history.htm. Details