ACTUARY

[ Sir William Palin Elderton, actuary. ] Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'W. Palin Elderton'), the first to the mathematician W. H. Besant and the second to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts

Author: 
Sir William Palin Elderton (1877-1962), actuary, President of the Institute of Actuaries [ William Henry Besant (1828-1917), mathematician; Royal Society of Arts, London ]
Publication details: 
Both on letterhead of Quill Hall Cottage, Amersham Common, Bucks, with the address of the lettter to Besant amended to Mansion House Street, E.C. [ London ] Both 23 January 1916.
£80.00

Both items in good condition, on lightly aged paper, and both docketed in blue pencil. The letter to Wood with the oval date stamp of the Society. ONE: ALS to Sir H. T. Wood, 23 January 1916. 1p., 12mo. Reads: 'I hear that my friend Mr. Besant has very kindly recommended that I might be able to review Major MacMahon's new book for you but I am afraid just at present I am so frightfully full up with work that I dare not undertake anything else – Even if I had time I fear the book would be beyond me. I am very sorry I cannot help.' TWO: ALS to 'My dear Besant', 23 January 1916. 1p., 4to.

The Theory of Chances, or The Modern Development of the Rules of Probability; with some notes regarding 'probabilities' in the game of roulette at Monte Carlo.

Author: 
James McGowan, FIA, formerly Government Actuary to the South African Government [Gambling; Roulette; Monte Carlo; Theory of Probability]
Publication details: 
London: Lamley & Co. 1, 3, and 5 Exhibition Road, South Kensington. [Printed at the Oxford University Press by Frederick Hall.]
£120.00

Small octavo: 31 pages. Unbound and stapled. Very good, in grubby original pink printed wraps. According to one authority McGowan is the 'first fully qualified actuary in South Africa of whom there is record [becoming] Cape Government Actuary of the former Cape Colony in 1890'. COPAC (under mispelt name "MacGowan") only recordds the BL copy.

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