Sunday 8 March 2020

1959: Professor J A Steers, CBE

Updated August 2023
Professor Steers is probably the definitive expert on coastal processes and landscapes, particularly those which have influenced the coastline of England and Wales. He was one of several GA Presidents to be associated with St Catharine's College, Cambridge and Gus Caesar.
His book on the coastal landforms of the UK is one that sits on my shelves to this day. I have a nice old edition with a green binding which dates back to the 1950s, and which I referred to quite recently to answer a question on Chesil Beach that someone asked.

He sits alongside Denys Brunsden, who will appear in the blog several decades hence, as key coastal geographers, who have shaped how we understand and teach these dynamic landscapes.

Steers was linked to the University of Cambridge, and also with a previous President: Frank Debenham. This, from the University of Cambridge alumnus page, describing the introduction of the Geography Tripos to the university following GA an RGS campaigning which has been well covered in earlier posts near the start of the 20th Century:

The first candidates for the Geography Tripos sat the exam in 1920, resulting in 2 students receiving a 1st Class for their Part 2 exams, one of whom was JA Steers, who would go on to become Professor of Geography and Head of Department 1949-66.

 Source: https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/alumni/earlyyears/

This piece from Nature in 1949 announced the arrival of Steers at the University of Cambridge, where he replaced another former GA President: Frank Debenham. (who had his own extensive entry in the blog a few months ago)

 MR. J. A. STEERS, who, in September, is to succeed Prof. F. Debenham as professor of geography in the University of Cambridge, was one of the first generation of geographers to take the newly constituted Geographical Tripos after the First World War. After a short spell of teaching at Framlingham, Mr. Steers returned to Cambridge to join the staff of the Geographical Department under Philip Lake. His College elected him to a fellowship, and before many years St. Catharine's became the first men's college to offer scholarships in geography. This led to a remarkable concentration of able geographical students in the College, which has resulted in a rapidly lengthening list of St. Catharine's geographers entering university posts–fifteen in the last ten years. In his College, Mr. Steers has served successively as dean, tutor, senior tutor, and president.

Professor Steers' address was on the subject of Physiography (also known as geomorphology) and he spoke about the importance of this aspect of geography.



Steers wrote many books on coastal landscapes, several of which I used for my own teaching over the years.
This quote is taken from Rex Walford's book, and dates to 1944, when Steers was campaigning to help "save the coast" by educating the public about its value. This sort of policy work was vital following the war.


This campaigning of Steers was mentioned by G. R. Crone in his chronology of 20th Century geography.



There are some references to J A Steers in a piece by D Stoddart in a piece on the founding of the IBG. I love this image, showing J A Steers talking, and which was apparently taken around the year 1938.

Source: Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270

I have some lovely memories of Professor Steers from a former student of his, who would later become a GA President himself: Derek Spooner. 

 In July 2019, he shared his memories of Professor Steers to me in an e-mail.

I first encountered this name in 1960, when I was in the sixth form and was given Steers' 'The Sea Coast' as a school prize. A marvellous, inspiring book in the wonderful New Naturalist series, which hooked me at the time on physical geography. Two years later I found myself at Cambridge studying Geography in the Department where Steers was Professor, and in St Catharine's College where he was a Fellow....

Truth to tell his lectures were rather disappointing - he was rather a shy man and certainly not a showman. He was very tall and bespectacled. He had been Head of Geography since 1949. He had been extremely influential in developing Geography in my College to an outstanding position within the University. By the time I arrived in Cambridge, Steers had become the leading coastal geomorphologist of his era. His studies of Scolt Head Island on the Norfolk coast were famous and the student trips he took there were legendary, with students getting stuck in the mud - certainly wouldn't have passed a risk assessment! I was not aware that he had just been President of the GA, or that he was also very active in the RGS, or indeed had become a leading figure in conservation policy.

'Alfie' was his nickname. He retired in 1966. I had started doing postgraduate work and I can remember being invited to a sherry party at his house in the posh western suburbs of Cambridge. His wife, Harriet, was also a Geography lecturer. Her speciality was the regional and historical geography of the USSR......

In his retirement I believe he continued his coastal studies. Ron Martin, another lecturer in the Department, told me that some times he would get a call from 'Alfie' asking him to drive him up to Scolt Head Island. Sounded as if he never really retired.

Here's a image from the copy of one of Steers' books that sits on my shelf. It has some lovely plates in it.


His author profile on the Harper Collins site is useful as well.
(1899–1987). Geomorphologist, Cambridge geographer, graduate and later Fellow of St Catherine's College. Professor of Geography at Cambridge 1949–66 and the authority on the moulding of coastlines.
Member of expeditions to coral reefs Australia 1928, 1936 and Caribbean 1939.

Concerned above all with surveys of British coast from a classic study of Scolt Head Island (1934) to the standard work The Coastline of England and Wales (1946). Much involved with coastal protection and a keen exponent of coastline preservation on Nature Conservancy, National Parks Commission and National Trust’s Enterprise Neptune.

He was awarded a CBE in 1973.

He was also involved in the committee which was established to ensure that an event like the 1953 East Coast Floods could not happen again in the same way.

His wife was also a geographer and published her own books, although I was interested to see that in this ad for one of her books in 'Geography' that she also added 'Mrs. J. A. Steers' in brackets after her own name Harriet Wanklyn. See image opposite.

An obituary was published in 'Geography' in 1987, written by David Keble.

References
Wikipedia - Professor Steers has no entry - he surely deserves one given his significance

STEERS, J. A. “Physiography: Some Reflections and Trends: Address to The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 1960, pp. 1–15. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565103.

Cambridge University alumnus page: https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/alumni/earlyyears/

Crone, G. R. “British Geography in the Twentieth Century.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 130, no. 2, 1964, pp. 197–220. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1794582

The RGS-IBG present an annual prize for the best undergraduate dissertation named in Steers' honour.

Referenced here for his work on Scolt Head Island: http://archive.jncc.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount2038.pdf

STEERS, J. A. “Physiography: Some Reflections and Trends: Address to The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 1960, pp. 1–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565103

Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270

As always, if anyone has further information on J A Steers or images, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

 Updated June 2020

 When writing a post on Tim Burt and Des Thompson's book 'Curious about Nature' I found a picture of J A Steers taken in Oxford in 1954 by E W Gilbert - shown here.... at a meeting of Section E of the BAAS.


Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2onPDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA80&dq=cuchlaine%20king%20nottingham&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q&f=true


Updated November 2020
There is a prize in his name for geomophology


Updated January 2021

From the St Catharine's college magazine - the text of a memorial address.


The magazine of the College society has details of his memorial address by Dr David Keeble, who was also linked with the GA:

https://www.society.caths.cam.ac.uk/Public_Magazines/1987r.pdf

Find it on p.31 here.

Each of us brings to this celebration our own personal memories of Alfred: of a tall, dignified presence crossing the College court, walking-stick in hand; of the personal warmth yet directness of his greeting in the Senior Combination Room - "sit down, sit down, have a glass of sherry"; of lectures in the semi-darkness of the Department of Geography's lecture theatre, where Alfred's impressive expositions of slides of coastal landforms sometimes demanded careful listening for those seated beyond the second row; of his famous field trips to Scolt Head Island, where an immaculate dark suit would be exchanged for shorts in the warden's hut, followed immediately, and to the horror of inappropriately dressed visitors, by a plunge into the muddiest and roughest salt marsh!

He was Church warden of St. Botolph's Church

As postwar governments grappled with growing planning pressures on Britain's precious but vulnerable coastline; as Britain's coastal defences crumbled under the 1953 North Sea surge; as the National Parks Commission, the Nature Conservancy, and the National Trust sought to devise effective and appropriate management policies for their coastal areas, it was to Alfred that they turned for scientific advice and informed appraisal. So too did the Council of Europe, who appointed him Coastal Consultant to their Conservation Committee. Alfred could be forthright in his condemnation of bad coastal management, criticising the War Office for example for such coastal eyesores as derelict huts, looking, as he scathingly remarked, "like a lot of false teeth sticking up!" But his writings and lectures on coastal problems - especially a major Royal Geographical Society lecture he gave in 1944 - were enormously influential in shaping the thinking of such ministers as W. S. Morrison

Updated August 2023
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