Person
Wickens, Charles Henry (1872 - 1939)
ISO
- Born
- 16 October 1872
Kangaroo Flat, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 30 July 1939
Balwyn, Victoria, Australia - Occupation
- Statistician and Actuary
Summary
Charles Wickens was Commonwealth Statistician and later Commonwealth Statistician and Actuary (1922-1932), succeeding Sir George Knibbs (qv). His Australian life tables for the decennia 1881-1890, 1891-1900 and 1901-1910 enabled comparisons between the States, found that life expectancy had increased since 1890 and that female rates of mortality were generally lower than those of males. Wickens also investigated social insurance schemes in preparation for the development of national insurance proposals by Sir Earle Page. He received the Messenger prize from the Institute of Actuaries (London, 1906) for an essay on the collection and analysis of mortality and population data; was a Foundation member of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand and a President of the Actuarial Society of Australasia (1924).
Details
Chronology
- c. 1896
- Education - Qualified through private study as an associate of the Institute of Actuaries
- 1897 - 1899
- Career position - Assistant Clerk in the Western Australian Public Service
- 1899 - 1906
- Career position - Clerk in the Statistical Bureau
- June 1901 - 1905
- Career position - Assistant Compiler and Departmental Actuary
- 1906
- Award - Messenger Prize, Institute of Actuaries, London
- 1906 - 1913
- Career position - Compiler with the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics
- 1913 - 1922
- Career position - Supervisor of census
- 1922 - 1924
- Career position - Commonwealth Statistician
- 1923
- Career position - President, Section G (Social and Statistical Sciences), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science
- 1923
- Career position - Formulated the Commonwealth superannuation scheme
- 1924
- Career position - President, Actuarial Society of Australasia
- 1924 - 1932
- Career position - Commonwealth Statistician and Actuary
- 1926
- Award - Companion of the Imperial Service Order (ISO) - Commonwealth Statistician
- 1927
- Career event - Elected Associate Member (Economics and Statistics), Australian National Research Council
- 1928
- Career position - Chair of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand
Related entries
Published resources
Book Sections
- Hazlehurst, Cameron; Kerley, Margot, 'Wickens, Charles Henry (1872-1939), statistician and actuary' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 12: 1891 - 1939 Smy-Z, John Ritchie, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 481-482. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A120541b.htm. Details
Journal Articles
- 'Obituary: Mr. C. H. Wickens', Australian Journal of Science, 2 (1) (1939), 17. Details
- Lancaster, H. O., 'Charles Henry Wickens, 1872-1939 [includes list of publications]', Australian Journal of Statistics, 16 (2) (1974), 71-82. Details
- Lancaster, H. O., 'Statistical Society of New South Wales', Australian Journal of Statistics, 30 (B) (1988), 99-109. Details
- Wickens, C. H., 'Sir George Knibbs', Economic Record, 5 (1929), 334-5. Details
Resources
- Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21536306. Details
- VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/92319110. Details
- 'Wickens, Charles H (1872-1939)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-512926. Details
Rosanne Walker
Created: 30 June 1997, Last modified: 15 May 2024