Sir Robert Henry Rew KCB (4 August 1858 – 7 April 1929) was a British agricultural statistician. He had a long career in public service and was a prominent member of the Royal Statistical Society serving as its President from 1920-22.
Life
He was the son of Robert Rew (1835–1917), a Congregational minister in Somerset and Buxton.[1][2] In 1890 he became Secretary of the Central Chamber of Agriculture.[3] He was secretary of the Royal Statistical Society from 1902 to 1920, and their Guy Medallist in 1905.[4]
At the beginning of World War I, in November 1914, Rew was put in charge of the government's Grain Supplies Committee, which he chaired to 1916.[4][5]
Rew was knighted in 1916. He stood twice for the Liberals in Henley (UK Parliament constituency) in 1922 and 1923 but lost on both occasions to Conservative Reginald Terrell.[6][4][7][8][9]
Works
- Stack Ensilage (1888)[10]
- An Agricultural Faggot: a Collection of Papers on Agricultural Subjects (1913)[11]
- 1917, a chapter on wheat supply in a new edition of The Wheat Problem by William Crookes, publication subsidised by Lord Rhondda.[12] Wartime conditions allowed Rew to reinforce the original message of Crookes, on the connection of food security and chemistry.[13]
Rew was an Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression from 1894. He produced reports on Norfolk and Dorset in 1895.[14][15]