Professor Peter Armitage, beloved father, grandfather and great-grandfather died on the 14th February aged 99, 4 months short of his 100th birthday. Peter was born in Huddersfield on 15th June 1924, his father Harry was a headmaster and later Deputy Mayor of Huddersfield. In 1942 at the age of 17 Peter followed his elder brother Eddie to Cambridge University where he studied Mathematics. One year into his degree studies he was recruited by the Ministry of Supply to aid in the war effort where he played an important role in developing sequential analysis models to predict the reliability of products. At the end of the war he returned to Cambridge to complete his degree. It was during his first year in Cambridge that he met 17 year-old Phyllis Perry who had been evacuated from London during the Blitz. Peter and Phyllis married in 1947 and had three children, Ruth, Richard and Rachel. They spent 54 years happily married until Phyllis’ death in 2001.

In 1947 Peter took a position in the Dept. of Medical Statistics at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London and in 1961 became one of the country’s youngest professors at the age of 37. He remained working there until 1976 at which time he was appointed to the chair of Biomathmatics at Oxford University. He was President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1982-1984 and was awarded the CBE in 1984. Peter remained working at Oxford University until his retirement in 1990.
In 2003 he married Donie Rowlatt, a longtime friend of the family. They had 15 happy years together until Donie’s death in 2018. Peter continued to live in the family home in Wallingford until a few weeks before his death.

Peter’s great loves were music, literature and cricket. He was also keenly interested in what was going on in the world and would read the Times from cover to cover every day. He was an accomplished pianist, only giving up playing when his hearing deteriorated later in life.

Peter will be missed by all who knew him, he will be remembered as a gentle, modest and thoughtful man who played down the significant contributions he made to the field of Medical Statistics.