The term “family annuities” appears to have been coined by George King, who used it in a paper read before the Institute on 19th December, 1892 (J.I.A. Vol. xxx, p. 291), to describe that form of orphans' benefit in which a small annuity is paid to each child of a deceased father until the child attains a specified age, such as 14 years. King gave a formula for the evaluation of the benefit and discussed a suitable basis, but though he worked out commutation columns he did not give any results in the form of specimen premiums. He was mainly concerned with the problem as an element in the schemes of State insurance which were then under discussion; indeed, as he revealed in a letter to the Insurance Record in 1920 (see J.I.A. Vol. LII, p. 35), he had been asked to make estimates in this connexion in 1890 by Mr Joseph Chamberlain.