By the untimely death of Mr. C. W. Kenchington on the 30th October, 1934, the Students' Society has lost one of its earliest honorary members, and students generally have lost a good friend who was wise in counsel and sympathetic in their difficulties. Long before the Institute embarked on the present comprehensive scheme of tuition, Mr. Kenchington acted as tutor for all four parts of the examinations, and later in Birmingham he interested himself, not only in actuarial students, but also in those taking the examinations of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Distance from London prevented him from being as regular in attendance at the fortnightly meetings of the Society as he would have wished, but on a number of occasions he made the journey to Town to take the chair or deliver a lecture. When the “Consolidation of Reading” project had reached a critical stage Mr. Kenchington, at the unanimous request of the Committee, consented to act as Editor-in-Chief of the series of booklets, and it is not generally known to what a considerable extent the publication of the first booklet was due to his encouragement and gentle urging.

In America distributions of bonus are made on a “contribution” method, but in Great Britain most of the offices use a bonus system of the compound reversionary or the simple reversionary type. To an actuary practising in England a contribution method seems to entail a great amount of work and may not reach exactitude in the end; while an actuary practising in America must, I think, feel inclined to ask English actuaries how they reach fairness between different classes and different ages at entry.

If we define “fairness” for our present purpose as such a distribution as leads to an equation at the outset between the present values, on an experience basis, of benefits on the one hand and of premiums (less expenses) on the other, then a complete contribution method will provide “fair” bonuses whatever the basis of valuation; and this is true though the valuation basis may be far removed from actual facts and though the “profits” in the valuation sense, from interest, loading, withdrawals and mortality, bear no relation to the premiums or the facts assumed in calculating those premiums.