Whittle left Cambridge for the University of Manchester, and, rather than follow him there, Kingman moved instead to the University of Oxford, where he resumed his work under David Kendall. After another year, Kendall was appointed a professor at Cambridge and so Kingman returned to Cambridge. He returned, however, as a member of the teaching staff (and a Fellow of Pembroke College) and never completed his PhD.[8] He married Valerie Crompton, a historian at the University of Sussex in 1964, and in 1965 he took up the post of Reader at the newly built University of Sussex where she was teaching, and was elected Professor of Mathematics and Statistics after only a year.[5][7][8] He said of this post:
Sussex in the 1960s was a very exciting place, alive with ideas and opportunities. My wife was teaching history there, and we made many friends across the whole range of subjects.[5]
He held this post until 1969, when he moved, figuratively, but not physically, to Oxford as Wallis Professor of Mathematics, a position he held until 1985.[5][7][8] He has said of this appointment:
Statistics in Oxford in 1969 was frankly a mess. There was no professor of statistics, the only chair having been abolished some years before...[Maurice Bartlett and] I conspired to persuade Oxford to take statistics seriously.[8]
From October 1985, Kingman was elected Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol.[5][7] He remained in Bristol until 2001 when he took up his post at the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge.[7] Shortly after making that move, Kingman drew some media attention for having the third-highest salary among British Vice-Chancellors and this having nearly doubled in his final year in the job,[12] at a time when most academics received pay-rises of about 3%. Whilst at Bristol, he also served in a number of other capacities. In the academic field, he was president of the Royal Statistical Society from 1987 to 1989,[13] and president of the London Mathematical Society from 1990 to 1992.[14] In public service, he was a member of the board of the British Council between 1986 and 1991 and was on the Board of the British Technology Group from 1986 until after it was privatised in 1992.[5][7] He also held directorships at a number of industrial companies, including IBM from 1985 to 1995 and SmithKline Beecham from 1986 to 1989.[5][7] In 1987–88, Kingman chaired the Committee of Inquiry into the teaching of the English language.[15] In 2000 the Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed Sir John the first chairman of the Statistics Commission,[16] the body that oversees the work of the Office for National Statistics, the UK government's statistics agency. In 2002 Kingman attracted some media attention
[17][18] by telling the House of CommonsTreasury Select Committee that the 2011 UK Census could be conducted using new technology rather than the traditional headcount, or even not conducted at all.[19]
^Wakeley, John (2009). "Coalescent Theory. An Introduction". Greenwood Village, Colorado: Roberts & Company. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Kingman, J. F. C.; Department of Education and Science (1988). Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Teaching of English Language. The Stationery Office Books: London. ISBN0-11-270650-9.