Background

Muriel Nissel was born on January 30, 1921 in London, England, United Kingdom. Her father, Evan Griffiths, was a civil servant, and her mother, Bessie May (Phillips) Griffiths, worked as a governess before marriage.

Education

Having won a scholarship to Queenswood School in Hatfield, as a boarder, Muriel developed her lifelong love of music and singing through its inspirational music director Ernest Read. In 1939, she was offered a place at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she read philosophy, politics and economics, and found out, that she excelled at the statistic component of the course. In 1942, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from St Hugh's College.

Career

On leaving St Hugh's College, Oxford, with a first-class degree in 1942, Muriel joined the Ministry of Fuel and Power (now Ministry of Power) on a temporary contract, working as an economic statistician under Harold Wilson. Nissel was appalled to find, that married women were not entitled to join the permanent staff in the civil service, a bar, that was lifted in 1946. From 1948 to 1953, she was a statistician at the Central Statistical Office and at H.M. Treasury from 1953 to 1958.

Muriel's love of music inspired her to follow the Amadeus Quartet, the celebrated string ensemble, founded in London, just after World War II, and she would often meet its members backstage after concerts during the 1950's. In 1998, Muriel would publish Married to the Amadeus: Life with a String Quartet, in which she told the story of the quartet from her perspective.

In 1964, Nissel took a job as a research assistant at the London School of Economics and began working there with Professor Claus Moser, who would become her mentor. Later that year, she joined the Central Statistical Office (CSO) as a financial statistician. Three years later, she was asked by Moser, who had by then been appointed director of the CSO, to develop a national survey, analyzing trends in social welfare, and so Social Trends was born. Nissel edited Social Trends, which was first published in 1970, for its first five years, before being relocated to scrutinize distribution and redistribution of wealth.

In 1967, Muriel became a chief statistician, and, in 1976, she left the civil service, joined various committees and continued to co-produce groundbreaking publications, such as The Welfare State: Diversity and Decentralisation (1980), Family Care of the Handicapped Elderly: Who Pays (1982) and People Count: A History of General Register (1987). From 1990 to 1993, she also was a statistical consultant at Carnegie Inquiry into the Third Age.

In 1995, Nissel was commissioned by Claus Moser, for the anniversary issue of Social Trends, to write an essay, reviewing its history. The Government Statistical Service declined to publish her article on the grounds, that it was "too strongly opinionated for inclusion." Nissel accused the government of being unable to face "uncomfortable facts" and wrote of the importance of "genuine democracy", being based on information, that is free from government interference and not "filtered through bureaucratic eyes."

Nissel argued, that it is essential to publish impartial statistical information in order to enable informed public debate. Whitehall offered to publish the beginning and end sections of Nissel's essay, but this would have meant, that the substantive criticism about the restrictions on statistical analysis, imposed by Margaret Thatcher, would be excluded. Nissel arranged for it to be published in full by the Royal Statistical Society. She also leaked a copy to the Guardian.

Achievements

• Muriel Nissel was best known as a senior civil servant and statistician, who, working at the government's Central Statistical Office at the end of the 1960's, co-founded the respected "statistician's bible" - Social Trends. In 1995, she found herself at the center of controversy about its role and function, when an essay she had written was excluded from the 25th-anniversary edition of Social Trends, leading to accusations of government censorship.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Married to the Amadeus: Life with a String Quartet

    (The Amadeus Quartet, which was active from 1948 until 198...)

    1998
  • Facts About the Arts 1983
  • People Count: A History of the General Register Office 1987

Politics

A lifelong Labour Party activist, Nissel stood as a candidate in Soho for the Westminster local elections in 1945, but narrowly failed to win. In 1963, she tried again in her local Mill Hill ward and, as she later wrote, "gave the Conservative candidate not a little anxiety in their traditional territory."

Also, Nissel was critical of the restrictions, placed on women in the workplace.

Views

Quotations: "I had never set out to be a fervent feminist, believing, that slow, determined breaking down of barriers would, in the long run, be more fruitful. But the experience taught me always to be on my guard and ready to fight."

Personality

Along with Siggy, her husband, Muriel loved nothing better, than giving dinners, during which guests enjoyed raucous jokes. Muriel would hold court with a whiskey in one hand and a cigar in the other. She was rarely without a fascinating story or opinion, be it on politics, music or feminism.

An enthusiastic traveler and keen sportswoman, Nissel inspired fear in her opponents on the squash court. On one occasion, she was refused entry to the RAC Club, where she had gone for a swim, because she was wearing jeans. Nissel, then in her 60's, threw a towel around her waist and re-presented herself. She was allowed in. This act of defiance characterized Nissel to a tee.

Connections

Muriel was married two times. On 26 January 1946, she married William Hans Barbour, but later the couple divorced. On 5 April, 1957, Muriel married Siegmund Nissel, a violinist. They had two children - Claire and Daniel.

Father:

Evan Griffiths

Mother:

Bessie May (Phillips) Griffiths

Ex-husband:

William Hans Barbour

Late Husband:

Siegmund Nissel

(3 January 1922 - 21 May 2008)

Siegmund Walter "Sigi" Nissel was an Austrian-born British violinist, who played second violin in the Amadeus Quartet and served as its administrator.

Daughter:

Claire Nissel

Son:

Daniel Nissel

colleague:

Claus Moser

(24 November 1922 - 4 September 2015)

Claus Adolf Moser, Baron Moser, was a British statistician, who made major contributions in both academia and the Civil Service.

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010