David dropped into an environment that had a rich legacy. Statistics at UCL began as the Biometric Laboratory in 1895. It was at the time K Pearson (then professor of applied mathematics and mechanics) gave the first course on mathematical statistics to two or three postgraduate students, “probably the first course given on the modern mathematical theory [of statistics] at all.” The course was seminal: It was given every year thereafter, and one of the first students became reader of statistics at Cambridge University.