1967: Fleure turns 90

Here's the cover of one of Fleure's books from the GA's collection at Solly Street.

He had previously been the subject of an appreciation when he turned 80:

BOWEN, E. G., et al. “For Herbert John Fleure, F. R. S. On His Eightieth Birthday, 6 June 1957.” Geography, vol. 42, no. 3, 1957, pp. 137–41. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40564094. Accessed 19 Dec. 2023.

Ron Johnston RIP

In the GA's manifesto for Geography "a different view" (which I shall talk about more when we get into the 2000s, there is a series of quotes.
One of them was from Professor Ron Johnston, who I heard today has sadly died.
He has a long and influential career and taught in a number of universities including the UK and New Zealand.
He was President of the Lincoln branch of the Geographical Association, 1978-83.

He wrote the obituary for former GA President Stan Gregory.
He won the AAG Lifetime Achievement Award.
He also co-wrote a piece for the Independent about another former GA President Michael Wise.

Updated:

Catch this video of him talking with Peter Haggett.

And read this piece from Derek Gregory on Geographical Imaginations.

Download 'a different view' as a PDF.

1967: The Broadening Vista

I came across reference to this paper in Robert Steel's obituary of Kenneth Charles Edwards. It was read at a joint meeting of the GA, RGS and IBG in 1967.



here's the paper, in 'Geography' - it's worth a read via JSTOR.




References

EDWARDS, K. C. “The Broadening Vista.” Geography, vol. 52, no. 3, 1967, pp. 245–259. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40566323. Accessed 4 Apr. 2020.

Thought for the Day

Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1934)

Source: https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=books

Gladys Hickman

Updated October 2023

Another influential person in the life of the GA was Gladys Hickman.

She was described in this piece in the GA Magazine as "an inspirational enthusiast for geographical education". She was made an Honorary member of the GA.
She was born in 1912 in East Sussex and grew up on a sheep farm on Romney Marsh.
She gained a first in Geography from UCL and took part in the first land use survey of Great Britain, becoming a close friend of former GA President Dudley Stamp.
Gladys was linked with the Bristol GA branch, having worked in teacher education at Goldsmiths and then Bristol University.
She worked on the Schools Council 14-18 project.
She was a well travelled geographer, and chaired the GA's Field Group in the 1960s and helped launch the Study Tours which the GA's International SIG still runs to this day.

She was also the tutor of former GA President Sheila Jones who told me in a personal communication:
Education year (1950-51), was a revelation with Dr. Gladys Hickman who introduced us to fieldwork opportunities and was a great innovator. Many of her students owe much of their success in teaching to her.

Sheila also wrote a history of the GA Bristol branch. This piece in the GA Magazine gives a flavour of her work.

She attended the 1993 Centenary Celebration of the GA, and Sheila Jones remembered her being there and wrote a little note in the letters she sent to me.

She was working into her 90s in retirement in Edinburgh, and supporting the work of the RSGS.


She wrote a book about Africa which stayed in publication for many years.


She died in 2006, and an appreciation was featured in the GA Magazine and an obituary in the Geographical Journal.


I read about Glady's life in this book as well.


Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

An Obituary, written by her son Richard, was published in The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/oct/19/obituaries.mainsection

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0028-8292.1975.tb00753.x

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6xWsAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA1913&ots=Tsc_l8fz68&dq=gladys%20hickman%20geography&pg=PA1915#v=onepage&q=gladys%20hickman%20geography&f=false

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00167487.2007.12094183

Updated August 2021

Found this in my Flickr account. It's a book in the Victorian Schoolhouse at Gressenhall Rural Life Museum a few miles from where I live in Norfolk.

Source:

https://epdf.tips/complex-locations-rgs-ibg-book-series.html

Teaching Geography

By Lionel William Lyde


Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7BQSBwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA16&ots=qyoQUQmILd&dq=lyde%20geography%20definition&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q&f=false

1966: Professor Stanley Henry Beaver

Last updated August 2023

Professor Stanley Henry Beaver was an academic geographer, who was particularly associated with the LSE and Keele University, as well as being a great supporter of the work of the GA.

A prolific author, he authored books on a wide range of topics, from Sand and Gravel, to more general human geographies of the world, and geomorphology.
He had a very long association with the GA, as did many Presidents of course, working with them for over 30 years before becoming President in a number of roles, and providing content for journals.
He was involved with L Dudley Stamp's Land Utilisation Survey, and co-authored many of the reports that came out of that survey in the 1930s and beyond.

He also became involved in the planning and delivery of the Annual Conference in 1933, after Dr. H J Wood stood down.
During the 1930s, the GA Conference actually moved around a lot more than it had previously, where it was mostly held at the LSE. The 1930s saw it in cities including Liverpool, Glasgow, Nottingham and Sheffield. In 1932, the conference was even planned to be overseas in Heidelburg, but political and currency problems meant it had to be cancelled.

He had an association with the RGS (as many other GA Presidents have) and the IBG.

When he left the LSE he was succeeded by Michael Wise: another former GA President.

He also co-wrote a classic book with another GA President, L Dudley Stamp called 'The British Isles' as part of the 'Regional Geography' series.

He was born in London in 1907, and went to UCL where he graduated with first class honours in Geography in 1928. He completed his Diploma in Education in 1929, and according to an obituary published in the Transactions of the IBG, was influenced by L. W. Lyde, who apparently regarded geography as:

"a body of knowledge coupled with an attitude of mind". 

He worked at the LSE between 1929 and 1950,  along with L Dudley Stamp

For some time, I couldn't find a contemporary image of Stanley Beaver, but was fortunate to receive one from Dr. Philip Kivell which can be seen at the top of the blog post.

In 1962, he had a piece published in 'Geography' on the Le Play Society and their contribution to fieldwork.

By this time, he was Head of the Geography department at the University of Keele. He stayed at Keele until his retirement in 1974 when he became Emeritus Professor.


In it, he references the work of Patrick Geddes, who had A. J. Herbertson as his assistant.


I am grateful to Dr. Peter Knight for helping me get in touch with Dr. Philip Kivell, who very kindly gave me a range of additional details on Professor Beaver's career and personal life. 

What follows was provided very kindly by Dr. Kivell.

S.H.BEAVER 1907-1984

Stanley Henry Beaver was born in Willesden, North London in August 1907. He graduated from University College London in 1928 with first class honours in Geography having already been awarded the Morris Prize and a University Scholarship in Geology. His first academic post was at the London School of Economics, where a very productive period resulted in appointment as Ernest Cassel Reader in 1946. His major work at this time, together with L Dudley Stamp was “The British Isles: a geographic and economic survey” which went though many editions before and after the war and provided a geographical grounding for  many thousands of students. 

During the war he worked for Naval Intelligence and used his geographical training to produce a number of regional handbooks. 

He was appointed as the founding professor of Geography at the new University College of North Staffordshire, subsequently Keele University, in 1950. 

Here he built up the first new post- war Geography Department in the country, including being closely involved in the physical design of the building. 

This included finding a home for millions of RAF air photographs taken over Europe during the war, and the establishment of a meteorological station on the campus.

Beaver could fairly be described as a traditional geographer, a product of an age that largely pre-dated the increasing specialization that reshaped the discipline from the 1960s. 

Having said that, his interests and skills were enormously diverse.  Most obviously he was a Human Geographer concerned with economic and regional matters, but his interests also ranged widely over transport geography, land use and dereliction and he was equally well informed about climate, meteorology, and mineral extraction. He was a practical academic, always interested in how environments and human processes worked and in this context he helped enormously to put “The Potteries” region on the map of public and academic awareness.

He was a superb and well organised teacher and was always in demand as a guest speaker by organisations across the country. From a student point of view he was extremely well respected but perhaps not the most approachable teacher. He belonged to an era when staff- student relations were more formal and respectful so the informality and student politics of the 1960s and 70s did not always sit easily with him. 

He could appear austere and remote but those who experienced his excellent field excursions soon saw a more relaxed side of him and were perhaps party to his dry sense of humour, his love of puns and his stock of limericks. At heart he was kind and immensely supportive to his staff and colleagues.

Apart from his teaching and research Beaver played a very active role in numerous groups and committees. Some of these were tied up with the University and local region, but others were national or international.  For many years he chaired Keele University Grounds Committee, responsible for the largest, and some would say, most attractive university campus in the country. It was not unknown for him to open his office window to berate students who were walking on the grass. 

He was President of the Geographical Association, active in the RGS and in the founding of the IBG, the IGU and the Anglo-Polish seminars. 

As Chair of the Geography Board of the CNAA he played a major role in promoting the new Polytechnic sector. Amongst all of this he found time to translate several important French texts into English.

During his quarter century at Keele  Stanley lived on the campus with his wife Elsie, who also worked as curator in the departmental map library, and four children. He enjoyed his large garden which he said (tongue in cheek) lay astride the watersheds between the Trent, Severn and Weaver catchments. One of his enduring passions had been steam railways, about which he was enormously knowledgeable. When the locomotive Keele Hall was withdrawn from service in 1963 Stanley Beaver bought the nameplate and displayed it proudly in his new department. On numerous overseas travels he would manage to arrange a trip on the footplate of whatever local steam locomotive took his fancy.

Upon retirement he and Elsie bought a large house in Eccleshall , a few miles from the campus, where he continued to garden, to enjoy his stamp collection and to continue his involvement in local Staffordshire organisations, especially the CPRE. He and Elsie endowed separate funds for student prizes and for fieldwork in the local area. 

Stanley Beaver was undoubtably one of the great geographers of his generation.

Professor Beaver died in 1984.

References
http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50006237/

Obituary: “Stanley Henry Beaver, 1907-1984.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 10, no. 4, 1985, pp. 504–506. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/621896

Beaver, S. H. “The Le Play Society and Field Work.” Geography, vol. 47, no. 3, 1962, pp. 225–240. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565418

British Geography 1918-1945, Edited by Robert.W Steel - published in 1987.
Chapter 12 was by J A Patmore, where he gave a personal perspective on the period.

Article in Geography in 1978
BEAVER, S. (1978). Some Observations on the Climate and Weather of New Zealand. Geography, 63(1), 14-22. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4056883
Patmore describes Beaver in this chapter.
A chapter in this book is here:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=9NSDx4DxfVcC&lpg=PA76&ots=uk5vMrcPG4&dq=stanley%20henry%20beaver%20geographer&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false

RGS Archives: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F46114 - I won't be able to visit the archive for a while, but there are quite a lot of papers

Updated - May 2020

A few updates to add following the posting.

There was a connection revealed between Professor Beaver and another former GA President who will have his own entry in due course (sometime in 2021) Bob Digby.
Bob told me that:


Bob apparently spent the £25 in the Keele University bookshop, buying geography textbooks from the time.

I also discovered another bit of information on Professor Beaver, from when he was a student at UCL in the 1920s. He was taught by Lionel William Lyde, another high profile Geographer from the early part of the 20th century.

His wife Elsie Rogers was also a student at UCL, and her memories of Lyde's teaching were also featured in the same document.


Taken from UCL Geography Department Archives.

Keele University offers an Elsie Beaver Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation by final year student involving fieldwork in physical geography, so the connection to Beaver continues.

It seems that she worked in the Map Library at the University as Map Curator. 

Beaver was also taught by another former GA President: Edmund Garwood. More connections...

Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7BQSBwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA16&ots=qyoQUQmILd&dq=lyde%20geography%20definition&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q&f=false
- this link is to one of the many Biogeographical Studies, which are 'proper' versions of what I'm doing on this blog.

I also found his own entry, after all that, in the Biogeographical Studies series.


This included an image of him, and also details of his links with the GA, as well as a lot more detail.

Beaver was Honorary conference organiser from 1934-1949 and also declared an intention to visit every branch in Britain while President - something I hoped to do, but didn't quite manage it.



https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R-48DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA130&ots=vx3Y5ASsYg&dq=lionel%20lyde%20UCL&pg=PA129#v=onepage&q=lionel%20lyde%20UCL&f=false 

As always, if you have further information relating to this President please get in touch. 

Thanks to Dr. Philip Kivell for the image of Professor Beaver used at the top of the blog and substantive text later on.
Thanks to Dr. Peter Knight for his assistance as well.

Updated March 2023

Mentioned on first page of J B Priestley's 'English Journey'.

Updated August 2023

Source: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R-48DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=%22Stanley+Henry+Beaver%22&source=bl&ots=vy3ZbCZyZk&sig=ACfU3U1ageKQ8x-hFPpJhfWlvtn_pg_6cw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjd-tDpydeAAxWCQUEAHd3EDEE4HhDoAXoECBYQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Stanley%20Henry%20Beaver%22&f=false

This flagged up his involvement with Section E of the BAAS, which I have been investigating over the last few days and have found plenty of details in the Transactions of the IBG and elsewhere that show Beaver's substantial involvement in discussions around geography in schools and universities. 

My new fave geographer: Stanley Beaver. Toured the Black Country by bike recording derelict land (text from @odnb) pic.twitter.com/JF3dW8mwBU

— Simon Briercliffe (@sbriercliffe) May 19, 2016

Charity shop haul today. Left Book Club, Socialist Library and, my inner historical geographer was very excited to find, a 1962 edition of Dudley Stamp and Stanley Beaver. pic.twitter.com/VlBuPQTll6

— Simon Briercliffe (@sbriercliffe) September 28, 2018

GA Obituary

Rodgers, H. B. “The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 1, 1985, pp. 77–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40571501. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023. 

Fanny Herbertson

Updated August 2022

Sometimes (but not always) remembered in the telling of A J Herbertson's tremendous contribution to the GA was that of his wife Fanny. Frances Dorothea Herbertson is described below:

Her story, and those of other female geographers are told in this book here.

She was a teacher herself, at Cheltenham Ladies College, and there is also a connection with Patrick Geddes, who will also be featured on the blog in a future post.
There is a link to Robert Neal Rudmose Brown, who featured recently on the blog.
See the A J Herbertson post on the blog for more on the work that he completed with his wife, including jointly authored books.


Source
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&lpg=PT115&ots=xln_U09sEO&dq=%22marguerita%20oughton%22%20sheffield&pg=PT115#v=onepage&q&f=false

Updated August 2022

A Chronology of Fanny Herbertson 

British Geography 1918-1945

This book was edited by Robert W Steel and published in 1987.

There is a chapter written by GA President J Allan Patmore.

It mentions a whole range of former GA Presidents as he talks through the changing nature of geography in the interwar period. I shall post several quotes from the chapter as 'Thoughts for the Day' in the coming months.

Thanks to Justin Woolliscroft for finding a copy of this in the Hull Archive and sending it through some weeks ago.

Charlotte Simpson

Another important female contributor to the history of the GA was Charlotte Simpson. She was associated with A J Herbertson.


She had work published in the 'Geographical Teacher', and was also linked with the Le Play Society, as were many Geographers at the time (the 1920s and 30s).
Source:



https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

1965: Moving to Fulwood Road

Through the 1950s. the GA's premises at  Duke Street Library in Sheffield were getting overcrowed. A donation of oak shelving from the University helped matters in 1959, but the City Fathers, who had granted the GA free accommodation decided that the permises were needed, so the GA had to look for a new home.

In 1959's Annual Report this was explained.

Balchin describes the 1960s as 'an anxious time', as several early options were rejected.

Their tenancy of the library was due to end in September 1964, and notice was served a year earlier. By late 1963, Alice Garnett had been able to secure some assistance from Sheffield University, who had bought land for building student accommodation which included a sizeable Victorian House at 343 Fulwood Road, Sheffield.

This was adopted as the postal address for the GA from September 1964.



Balchin says that the formal opening of the new HQ was on the 11th December 1965, by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield, followed by lunch.

Alice Garnett talked about the impending move in her reflections in 1964 and reported on it in 1965.


After 14 years at the Duke Street Library they had a short move.
It describes the accommodation as having ground-floor accommodation for the library and editorial needs, and first floor accommodation for clerical and administrative work, along with meetings rooms, branch visits and committee meetings.

Here's a floor plan from an estate agent's booklet when it was sold


New staff were also taken on it seems.


Further HQ staff of the time were mentioned in a report from 1966.


References

GARNETT, ALICE. “The Geographical Association: ANNUAL REPORT 1958.” Geography, vol. 44, no. 1, 1959, pp. 54–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564237
Image taken from Balchin's Centenary, photo is copyright the GA Archives

“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 49, no. 3, 1964, pp. 346–348. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40566391. Accessed 22 Apr. 2020.

Edith Coulthard

A mention here for Edith Coulhard. She assisted Alice Garnett as honorary secretary of the GA in the early 1950s.
She also wrote in 'Geography' about some experiments linking up with other schools and carrying out some interesting project based learning with students back in the 1940s. She wanted students to have experience of learning which would be useful for "real life".

She also reported on a 9 day study tour of Belgium accompanied by Elsie K Cook

Source: 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Coulthard, E. M. “EXPERIMENTS IN TEACHING CURRENT AFFAIRS.” Geography, vol. 27, no. 2, 1942, pp. 69–71. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562200. Accessed 15 May 2020.

Coulthard, E. M. “A SCHOOL EXPERIMENT.” Geography, vol. 28, no. 4, 1943, pp. 117–118. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562328. Accessed 15 May 2020.

Cook, Elsie K., and Edith M. Coulthard. “ACROSS THE EAST OF BELGIUM FROM ARLON TO BEERINGEN.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 12, no. 2, 1923, pp. 132–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555387. Accessed 15 May 2020.

1966: Geography in the Schools of Tomorrow

J W Morris was the HMI Staff Inspector for Geography when he gave this address to the 1966 Spring GA Conference.

Quite a lot of what he had to say still resonates today.

He described three issues which needed attending to - I wonder how many are still relevant:

The first was teacher subject knowledge and ensuring that it is up to date.




The second was cross-curricular working and thinking.



The third was also an interesting one: the role of fieldwork.

He talked about the vital role of particular GA Committees, and flagged up the work of Dr Gladys Hickman. He also mentioned the Schools Council's work at the time.

He ended with a reminder of a few familiar themes which are still relevant in 2020....

"..... if the work of teachers is to be fruitful it needs co-ordination, a regular exchange of ideas, a sharing of experience. The time is ripe for a new drive for good communications and professional unity among geography teachers in the years of change that lie ahead..."

References
MORRIS, J. W. “Geography in the Schools of Tomorrow.” Geography, vol. 51, no. 4, 1966, pp. 309–317. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40566156. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020.

Rachel Fleming

Another in a succession of women who gave a great deal to the Association was Rachel Fleming. She was a great support to H J Fleure when the library and GA Offices moved to Aberystwyth. She was mentioned in Fleure's own entry on the blog as someone who supported his work and kept the library running smoothly at a time of great demand for its contents.



Source:


https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Robert Neal Rudmose Brown

I came across this geographer while researching Marguerita Oughton, who was a stalwart of the GA for many years, and retired in 1965. 'Ruddy' Brown or RB is described as an 'explorer' geographer. He fell out with former GA President Percy Maude Roxby over his thoughts on China.
His father was a prominent Geographer of the time, who went on expeditions to Spitsbergen and wrote popular books.
Rudmose Brown also worked as an assistant to another person who has reappeared several times: Patrick Geddes.

He wrote about the influence of Geddes and Herbertson in a paper in Geography in 1948, which I missed at the time of going through the 1940s.

According to the link below, he also raised funds for an expedition to Antarctica. It is worth reading his Herbertson Memorial Lecture from 1948 which is referenced at the end.

There is plenty more information and links in the final references as well. 




Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kA10CwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA15&ots=IiZwssqnSc&dq=%22marguerita%20oughton%22%20sheffield&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=%22marguerita%20oughton%22%20sheffield&f=false

Brown, R. N. Rudmose. “SCOTLAND AND SOME TRENDS IN GEOGRAPHY: JOHN MURRAY, PATRICK GEDDES and ANDREW HERBERTSON.” Geography, vol. 33, no. 3, 1948, pp. 107–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564415. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Hgx0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT47&lpg=PT47&dq=L+S+Suggate+new+zealand+geography&source=bl&ots=hSAbYtikP7&sig=ACfU3U3xTp3QcGa298y0a41c_rst3eRWtw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJk9ndgPGAAxWhS0EAHV5fCPs4FBDoAXoECAgQAw#v=onepage&q=L%20S%20Suggate%20new%20zealand%20geography&f=false

Updated August 2023

Source above:

The section on Rudmose Brown references a great many GA Presidents, plus Patrick Geddes - who was a GA Vice President.

A nice quote from J L Myres.

Source: Robert Neal Rudmose Brown - Delivered to geographers at the University of Sheffield

Scottish Geographical Magazine (Vol 30) 1914 p.467-79