Stella Cunliffe facts for kids

Stella Vivian Cunliffe (born January 12, 1917 – died January 20, 2012) was a smart British woman who worked with numbers. She was a statistician, which means she used data to understand things and solve problems. Stella was the very first woman to lead the Royal Statistical Society, a group for people who work with statistics.

Early Life and Education

Stella Cunliffe went to Parsons Mead School in Ashtead, Surrey. She was the Head Girl there in 1934. She was also the first student from her school to go to university. Stella studied at the London School of Economics and finished her degree in 1938.

After university, she started her career in 1939 at the Danish Bacon Company. During World War II, when bacon was rationed, she helped decide how much bacon people in London could get.

Helping Europe After the War

A cleansing station at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945. Volunteers helped wash and delouse people who had been held there.

After World War II ended, Stella took a break from her job. From 1945 to 1947, she volunteered in Europe with the Guide International Service. This group was made up of trained former Girl Guides who helped rebuild Europe after the war.

Stella was one of the first civilians to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. There, she and other volunteers helped care for people who had been held captive. They set up a "human laundry" to wash and clean the people, helping them get healthy again.

A Career in Statistics

In 1947, Stella started working as a statistician at Guinness, a famous brewing company in Dublin. She worked there until 1970. By 1955, she was in charge of the statistics department.

Stella developed important ways to test things using statistics. For example, she changed how workers checked beer barrels. Before her, workers would roll good barrels downhill (easy) and push bad barrels uphill (hard). This made them want to accept barrels even if they were faulty. Stella made it equally easy to accept or reject a barrel. This simple change saved Guinness a lot of money!

Later, in 1970, Stella joined the Home Office in the British government. By 1972, she became the Director of Statistics there. She was the first woman to reach such a high position in the British Government Statistical Service. She made the department bigger and created a special team for computers.

Stella also looked into problems with migration figures, which are numbers about people moving in and out of a country. She found an error where too many people leaving the country had been counted. She then set up an investigation to fix this.

She also visited prisons and believed that statistics could help make better decisions about justice. She showed the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, that harsh punishments like capital punishment did not always stop crime.

After retiring from the Civil Service at age 60, she continued to work as a statistical adviser for other groups. She also worked as a consultant at the University of Kent.

From 1975 to 1977, Stella Cunliffe was the first female President of the Royal Statistical Society. She hoped she was chosen because she was a good statistician, not just because she was a woman.

Honours and Other Activities

Stella Cunliffe was awarded the MBE in 1993. This award recognized her help to the Guides and her community work in Surrey.

Stella was also involved in many other things. She worked with youth groups, enjoyed gardening, and helped people after they left prison. She was a local councillor for Mole Valley District from 1981 to 1999. She also led the local Community Health Council and was the Chair of Governors for her old school, Parsons Mead School.

See also

In Spanish: Stella Cunliffe para niños