The BBC's transmission of Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End (a co-production with HBO) reminded me that the central character, Christopher Tietjens was an actuary, probably the most famous actuary in English literature. I came to Ford through his collaborator Joseph Conrad, a teenage interest with Coppola's Apocalypse Now led me to Conrad and a love of sailing inspired me to read all his novels while an undergraduate. I read the first two books of Parade's End after graduating. I always thought Ford made Tietjens an actuary to highlight his fidelity, his trustworthiness.  Statistics provides the foundation for our belief, our faith, in science, that is why Bertrand Russell (following Poincare) observed It is important to realise the fundamental position of probability in science. ... As to what is meant by probability, opinions differ (p 301, An Outline of Philosophy)around the same time Ford was writing Parade's End.  So, in making Tietjens an actuary, and the Second...

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