Edgar Anstey (psychologist)

Dr. Edgar Anstey (5 March 1917 – 1 June 2009) was a British Civil Service psychologist who worked for the Ministry of Defence and who is most noted for his incidental role during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

[2][3][4] Left with few resources after the death of her husband, Vera Anstey needed to find work to support herself and her children and began a distinguished career as a lecturer at the London School of Economics, while Edgar was brought up by two of his mother's sisters in Reigate in Surrey.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment he had 18 months of active service in defending the Yorkshire coast from possible enemy invasion and was promoted to Major.

[1][3][6] In 1945 at the end of the War Anstey founded the research unit for the Civil Service Commission with responsibility for finding alternatives to the traditional written exams candidates were required to sit.

As senior principal psychologist in the Ministry of Defence, in October 1962 Anstey travelled to Washington[7] during the Cuban Missile Crisis where he made use of his psychological expertise to assess the likely impact of nuclear warfare on the population.