Reference number
  • VAR
Date
  • 1954-1979
Level
  • Collection
Description
  • The archive contains the files of Edward van Rest, which comprise correspondence, photographs, printed material and other personalia, 1954-1979.
Extent
  • 1 box
Admin history
  • Edward van Rest was born in Eastbourne in 1901. He was a statistician

    His curriculum vitae, as supplied by his son, is as follows:

    1912 - 1919 Scholar, Sir Walter St John's School, London SW11
    1919-1921 & 1922-1923 Scholar, Peterhouse, Cambridge
    1922 BSc (Maths) London Univ.
    1923 BA (Natural Sciences) Cambridge Univ.
    1923-25 Physics Master, Bancroft's School, Woodford, Essex
    1925-40 Scientific Officer, Forest Products Research Lab.
    1925 - 27 Oxford

    1927 - 40 Princes Risborough, Bucks

    1940-45 Ministry of Home Security, R & D Dept, Princes Risborough
    1945-46 Ministry of Supply, O/C Advisory Service on Quality Control,
    Advisory Service on Statistical Methods (S.R.17)

    1946-51 Principal Scientific Officer, National Physical Lab. Mathematics Division,
    Teddington, Middlesex

    1951 Secretary and Royal Statistical Society Representative, British Productivity
    Council's specialist team on Inspection in Industry visit to USA

    1951-60 Ministry of Supply, Advisory Service on Statistical Methods, London
    Service transferred to the Ministry of Aviation, and later to the War Office.
    Carlton Hotel, Haymarket; Shell-Mex House, Strand; War Office, Whitehall.

    1961 30 January, Retired from Civil Service.
    1961-66 Assistant Director of Research, Engineering Dept, Cambridge Univ.
    Teaching 'Principles of Industrial Management' & Design of Experiments

    1966 July, retired and November moved to Exeter, Devon.


    Served on the first editorial committee of "Applied Statistics"
    Member of Council, Royal Statistical Society
    Member of Council and Education Committee and Examiner, Institution of Engineering Inspection
    Chairman, British Productivity Council's Committee on Quality Control,
    which became National Council of Quality & Reliability

    Examiner, Institute of Statisticians.


    Believed to have been Secretary of the Operational Research Club, the predecessor of the ORS
Appraisal
  • This collection has been weeded for duplicates.
Finding aids
  • The archive has been catalogued to file level. A copy of this catalogue is available in paper format in the Centre's searchroom, at the National Register of Archives in London and in Chadwyck-Healey's 'National Inventory of Documentary Sources'.
    An authority file exists for Edward Douglas van Rest (GB 0152 AAR1460).
Access status
  • Open
Related Material
  • The Centre holds the following other collections relating to the history, development and practice of operational research and to pioneers and practitioners in this field (collectively known as the Operational Research Archive): British European Airways: Operational Research Branch (MSS.335/AI/1); British Overseas Airways Corporation: Operational Research Branch (MSS.335/AI/2); British Steel Operational Research papers and Memoranda (MSS.335/BS); the Papers of Professor Stephen Cook (MSS.335/CK); the Community Operational Research Unit (MSS.335/COR); the East Midlands Operational Research Group (MSS.335/EMORG); Papers of the Fellowship for Operational Research (MSS.335/FOR); papers for British Gas Operational Research (MSS.335/GA); British Gas North West Operational Research Reports (MSS.335/GA/NW); GKN Operational Research Reports (MSS.335/GKN); Fellowship for Operational Research (MSS.335/FOR); International Federation of Operational Research Societies (MSS.335/IFORS); Interviews with Operational Research Pioneers and Related Papers (MSS.335/INT); the Institute for Operational Research (MSS.335/IOR); the Local Government Operational Research Unit (MSS.335/LG); Miscellaneous and Fragmentary Operational Research Papers (MSS.335/MIS); Operational Analysis Branch, NATO (MSS.335/OAB); Draft Obituaries of Operational Research Practitioners (MSS.335/OBIT); the Papers of Jack Plymen (MSS.335/PLY); the Papers of Professor K. Brian Haley relating to Operational Research Quarterly (MSS.335/SO/H); the Papers of Rolphe C. Tomlinson (MSS.335/TOM).