1916-18: Geography and the First World War

"The war has been a geographical education in itself. It is impossible that you should have missed the geographical application to the movements of the war. Mountains and rivers, deserts and marshes have all played their part, and in many cases have exhibited new and unexpected values.... The value of map reading and map thinking is generally if not universally recognised."

(Holdich, 1917)

By 1916, the impacts of the war were being felt in all areas, and the GA was not immune from this. There were issues with membership, and renewals and administration around contacting people. Some members were called up, of course.

The Spring issue of 'The Geographical Teacher' was slimmer than usual because of a rise in costs associated with printing and distributing the journal to its subscribers. The Summer issue was even slimmer. These issues were mostly concerned with GA business rather than new articles on pedagogy and curriculum, and fewer books to review were published.

There was also an Editorial on the war on p.2 of the journal.
The new editors were H. O. Beckit and P. M. Roxby, who took over from the late A. J. Herbertson

It's interesting to hear how they realised that subjects would be reappraised for their value at this time. and that this was an area where Geography had its strengths.

This theme was also taken up in 1917, when the GA President was a military man: Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich.
In his Presidential Address he referred to the was as "a geographical education in itself."

Considering the period once the war ended, he suggested that this was an opportunity.

"I do not know what shape our representations in Government in the matter of giving a better placeto geography in the new educational programme may take, but whatever it is, we shall certainly be faced by the practical question of demand. Is it wanted?"

"Well then, we must set to work to create the demand, and it is for the Association to set the example. We must revise if necessary our system of education in our elementary and secondary schools.."

Following the war, there was a rebound and a rapid growth in GA membership. Things were starting to happen... and this blog will share the story of what happened over the coming decades...

Update
This was H. J. Fleure's call to arms at the end of the war, in the Annual Report of 1918 that he wrote:



References
Holdich, T. H. “PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION, 1917.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 9, no. 1, 1917, pp. 13–24. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40554527.

Source: “EDITORIAL.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 8, no. 4, 1916, pp. 211–215. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40554491.

Image: from National Library of Scotland - Trench Maps near Amiens, France.
'Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland'

FLEURE, H. J. “The Geographical Association: ANNUAL REPORT, 1918.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 10, no. 1, 1919, pp. 35–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555811.

Update 2 (July 2019)

I came across an article by Rex Walford in 1993 called 'Mackinder, the GA in Wartime and the National Curriculum' which provided more details on the activities of the GA during the First World War and also the Second World War.
This also provided more information on Mackinder himself.

Reference
Walford, Rex: ' Mackinder, the GA in Wartime and the National Curriculum' (Geography, Vol 78, 1993)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40572493