Karl Pearson, 1857-1936

Karl Pearson, who died suddenly on 27 April after working almost to the end, was the son of William Pearson, K.C., and of Yorkshire stock through both parents. “ From my father ”, he said, speaking at a dinner held in his honour in April, 1934, “ I inherited some fraction of his power for hard work. During the legal terms, winter and summer, he was up at 4 a.m. to read his briefs and prepare his speeches for Court. Home at 7 p.m., dinner followed and bed at 9 p.m. Only in the vacation did we really see him ; then he was shooting, fishing, sailing, with a like energy which astonished me even as an active boy. On my mother’s side I am also descended from Yorkshire folk, formerly termed the ‘mad’ Bethels, and from another Yorkshire family, the roaming Whartons. Put into me a combination of those characteristics—a capacity for hard work and a capacity for roving into other people’s preserves—and you have an explanation of my life. Its doings are not due to myself , but arise from the factors contributed to my make-up by my ancestry.” An explanation of his life? Hardly that, perhaps, but certainly an explanation of much.