Last updated July 2024Michael Wise was 58 when he became the GA President, and working at the University of Birmingham. He is one of the most interesting and influential of all the GA's former Presidents, and has had one of the biggest impacts on geography with his varied connections and outputs.
He was born in 1918, and was brought up in Birmingham, and later linked with the University of Birmingham during his career.
He went to school with L J Jay (Leslie Jay), who worked as the Honorary Librarian of the GA from 1954 to 1973 (see previous post)
Here is a paragraph from the appreciation of L J Jay that Michael wrote following Jay's death in 1986.
In it, he describes the influence of the geography teacher they both had while they were at the same school as pupils.
From a piece he wrote about the work of the GA. (PDF download)
This is always worth remembering: the improving power of taking part in the community of practice that is the GA.
Michael was Programme Secretary to the IGC and was one of the IGU Presidents as well - this international work is important, and is continuing to this day. David Lambert certainly led a great deal of international work within the GA, and Alan Kinder and Becky Kitchen continue to work in other countries to develop their curricula, as well as another former President Margaret Roberts who has worked extensively in Singapore to develop their school geography.
Michael served on various Government commissions and committees (which would have contributed to the Policy work of the GA, something that continues to this day at that level). The connection with policy work is something that I have got increasingly involved in during the first year on the GA's Presidents Group as it is currently called. This has included consultations with OFQUAL, who are currently not getting particularly good press for their judgement over this year's exam results.
Another image from the LSE Archives.
He was born in 1918, and was brought up in Birmingham, and later linked with the University of Birmingham during his career.
He went to school with L J Jay (Leslie Jay), who worked as the Honorary Librarian of the GA from 1954 to 1973 (see previous post)
Here is a paragraph from the appreciation of L J Jay that Michael wrote following Jay's death in 1986.
In it, he describes the influence of the geography teacher they both had while they were at the same school as pupils.
From a piece he wrote about the work of the GA. (PDF download)
This is always worth remembering: the improving power of taking part in the community of practice that is the GA.
Michael was Programme Secretary to the IGC and was one of the IGU Presidents as well - this international work is important, and is continuing to this day. David Lambert certainly led a great deal of international work within the GA, and Alan Kinder and Becky Kitchen continue to work in other countries to develop their curricula, as well as another former President Margaret Roberts who has worked extensively in Singapore to develop their school geography.
Michael served on various Government commissions and committees (which would have contributed to the Policy work of the GA, something that continues to this day at that level). The connection with policy work is something that I have got increasingly involved in during the first year on the GA's Presidents Group as it is currently called. This has included consultations with OFQUAL, who are currently not getting particularly good press for their judgement over this year's exam results.
Another image from the LSE Archives.
There is a Michael Wise room in the Geography department at LSE. This was renamed some years after his death. Some memories of him here.
One particular contribution Michael made was as a member of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) during the late 70s and early 80s. One of the things that he did while there was to establish a Fellowship. One person who got the fellowship turned out to be Doreen Massey, who became one of the most influential geographers in recent decades, and also a former Honorary Vice President of the GA. (Doreen will have a post on the blog in due course)
His Presidential Address was called 'Geography in Universities and Schools. It tackled the issue that we still talk about today - the possible disconnect between school and university geography. It is worth reading, using the link at the bottom of the post.
He was interviewed in this film here, which provides a little more background to his interests, and makes him another rare President to appear on video until much closer to the present day:
Interview with Professor Michael Wise, Former President of the International Geographical Union, London School of Economics and Political Science. Interviewed by Anne Buttimer.
Michael also served as a member and President of many learned societies and was one of only two UK academics to have been President of all three UK geographical societies - the Royal Geographical Society, the Geographical Association and the Institute of British Geographers - as well as the International Geographical Union.
He received the RGS Gill Memorial award in 1958 and Founder’s Medal in 1977, among many awards, and received the CBE in 1979.
(from the BBC obituary)
At his 90th birthday party, held at the LSE, according to the lengthy Independent obituary:
He read from a primary school essay that he wrote: “My favourite lesson is geography. I will tell you why. It is because it teaches me all about the world and all the things upon it.”
Michael was featured in a volume of Biographical Studies.
He wrote a chapter in a book that I have a copy of called 'Geographical Futures', and this paragraph is taken from that
Michael was mentioned by several former Presidents whom I was able to contact.
For example, Chris Kington very kindly lent me a copy of a journal piece that Michal wrote with his memories around becoming a geographer.
Wise, M. J. (2001). Becoming a geographer around the second world war. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913250102500112
This described some of his early geographical adventures.
I've previously mentioned a quote from this article which describes how he came across a book by H J Fleure.
He recalls being on active service in the Middle East, and the great pleasure he had in Baghdad in 1942 which came from "finding a copy of Fleure's Introduction to Geography (1929) and the poignancy struck at this time by his concluding words: 'the lives of men are bound up with the little bit of earth that is given to each to love, and the student of geography must set himself to understand the links that bind him there, and not only there, but also the very different ones that bind him and his fellow men in all lands' (p.79)
From Johnston and Board's piece: Read this!
Wise was a doughty campaigner for geography throughout the educational system, doing much work behind the scenes, in committees and other fora, as well as publishing papers such as that advocating geography’s role in technical education (1961a) which advanced his wider claim that geographers should (p.348):
"base our arguments not on the side-door entry of geography as a general education for citizenship, and as a background subject but, through the front entrance, on geography as a disciplined, practical study with its own techniques and tools directly applicable to the problems and tasks of the day. … Let us make geography a subject which does things, not merely one which reads about other people doing them."
And he wanted action to ensure that happened.
A few years later, in his presidential address to the GA, he called for it to ‘involve itself more actively than it has done in the recent past in debate on educational matters’ (1977b, 249) in an ‘aggressive defence of our subject and its approaches’ (p.256).
He noted that the discipline was changing rapidly in universities and wanted this recognised in schools, despite their need to cater not just for university entrants but also to ‘many groups of pupils with different ambitions, plans, and values’ (p.233). Steel (1983, 40 and 112) reports in his history of the IBG that Wise facilitated constructive engagement between the RGS and IBG councils in 1981, leading to the establishment of a Council of British Geographers (the two societies merged a decade later), and was instrumental in a far-reaching restructuring of the British National Committee for Geography, the body that, through the Royal Society, was responsible until 1990 for British geography’s links to international bodies such as the International Geographical Union and the International Cartographic Association (Anon. 1970; Geographical Journal 156, 1990, 350).
Larger plans for a Council of British Geography, initiated by the GA, were unsuccessful then, and although a council was established a few years later it has not played a major role, having last met in November 2012 (http://www.cobrig.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016)).
During his RGS presidency Wise was also involved in the discussions that led to the establishment of the Association of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, later the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (http://www.the-academy.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016).
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
This is a useful document and have referred to this several times during the writing of this blog.
Michael was made an Honorary Member of the GA in 1980.
Michael sadly died in 2015, aged 97 - another former GA President to have approached 100 years of age.
References
BBC Obituary
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/obituaries/obituary-professor-michael-wise-cbe-mc
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-michael-wise-geographer-whose-skills-made-him-a-leading-force-in-his-discipline-for-more-a6808241.html - this is a lengthy piece.
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_John_Wise
I edited this entry to include a mention of Michael's GA Presidency, as I have with all other Wikipedia pages for Presidents. It's rare to get a Wikipedia page so recent to the present day.
Biography: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KU08DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT117&ots=5ELMysnSPh&dq=alexander%20carr-saunders%20geography&pg=PT101#v=onepage&q&f=false
Address: WISE, M. J. “Geography in Universities and Schools.” Geography, vol. 62, no. 4, 1977, pp. 249–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568785
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
A detailed biography of Michael:
https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/138330669/MichaelJohnWise_F.pdf
(PDF download)
Wise, M. J. (2001). Becoming a geographer around the second world war. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913250102500112
LSE page: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/condolences/2015/10/26/michael-wise/?from_serp=1
Includes memories from former students such as this from Peter Mitchell.
I studied under Michael Wise 1957-60 and have the warmest memories of his teaching and his personal kindness. We found we were fellow residents of Finchley. I recall going to his inaugural lecture when he got his chair. His enthusiasm for human geography rubbed off on me and with his encouragement I became a town planner. In the 90s I met him once or twice when I was in LSE for BSPS meetings and he was the same as ever. Another nice memory was a field course in his original home ground of the Midlands: a gaggle of us were in an old quarry near Dudley and a small boy was eyeing us questioningly. Far from ignoring him, Michael greeted him with “Hello, our kid”. It’s the little things that you remember!
Those who still remember the closure of LSE in 1969 and the highly charged political atmosphere will recall LSE’s finding room to continue teaching in Kings and temporary LSE Geography HQ in The Surrey, a pub then in Surrey Street. His military service during World War II, when he gained the Military Cross in Italy, was adapted to the organisation of field courses and handling student humour. Cooperation with colleagues applied across the range of courses, as I discovered when I returned as Lecturer. His door was “open” in the sense that he made time for us and students.
Source of these images is the link above.
One particular contribution Michael made was as a member of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) during the late 70s and early 80s. One of the things that he did while there was to establish a Fellowship. One person who got the fellowship turned out to be Doreen Massey, who became one of the most influential geographers in recent decades, and also a former Honorary Vice President of the GA. (Doreen will have a post on the blog in due course)
His Presidential Address was called 'Geography in Universities and Schools. It tackled the issue that we still talk about today - the possible disconnect between school and university geography. It is worth reading, using the link at the bottom of the post.
He was interviewed in this film here, which provides a little more background to his interests, and makes him another rare President to appear on video until much closer to the present day:
Interview with Professor Michael Wise, Former President of the International Geographical Union, London School of Economics and Political Science. Interviewed by Anne Buttimer.
Michael also served as a member and President of many learned societies and was one of only two UK academics to have been President of all three UK geographical societies - the Royal Geographical Society, the Geographical Association and the Institute of British Geographers - as well as the International Geographical Union.
He received the RGS Gill Memorial award in 1958 and Founder’s Medal in 1977, among many awards, and received the CBE in 1979.
(from the BBC obituary)
At his 90th birthday party, held at the LSE, according to the lengthy Independent obituary:
He read from a primary school essay that he wrote: “My favourite lesson is geography. I will tell you why. It is because it teaches me all about the world and all the things upon it.”
Michael was featured in a volume of Biographical Studies.
He wrote a chapter in a book that I have a copy of called 'Geographical Futures', and this paragraph is taken from that
Michael was mentioned by several former Presidents whom I was able to contact.
For example, Chris Kington very kindly lent me a copy of a journal piece that Michal wrote with his memories around becoming a geographer.
Wise, M. J. (2001). Becoming a geographer around the second world war. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913250102500112
This described some of his early geographical adventures.I've previously mentioned a quote from this article which describes how he came across a book by H J Fleure.
He recalls being on active service in the Middle East, and the great pleasure he had in Baghdad in 1942 which came from "finding a copy of Fleure's Introduction to Geography (1929) and the poignancy struck at this time by his concluding words: 'the lives of men are bound up with the little bit of earth that is given to each to love, and the student of geography must set himself to understand the links that bind him there, and not only there, but also the very different ones that bind him and his fellow men in all lands' (p.79)
From Johnston and Board's piece: Read this!
Wise was a doughty campaigner for geography throughout the educational system, doing much work behind the scenes, in committees and other fora, as well as publishing papers such as that advocating geography’s role in technical education (1961a) which advanced his wider claim that geographers should (p.348):
"base our arguments not on the side-door entry of geography as a general education for citizenship, and as a background subject but, through the front entrance, on geography as a disciplined, practical study with its own techniques and tools directly applicable to the problems and tasks of the day. … Let us make geography a subject which does things, not merely one which reads about other people doing them."
And he wanted action to ensure that happened.
A few years later, in his presidential address to the GA, he called for it to ‘involve itself more actively than it has done in the recent past in debate on educational matters’ (1977b, 249) in an ‘aggressive defence of our subject and its approaches’ (p.256).
He noted that the discipline was changing rapidly in universities and wanted this recognised in schools, despite their need to cater not just for university entrants but also to ‘many groups of pupils with different ambitions, plans, and values’ (p.233). Steel (1983, 40 and 112) reports in his history of the IBG that Wise facilitated constructive engagement between the RGS and IBG councils in 1981, leading to the establishment of a Council of British Geographers (the two societies merged a decade later), and was instrumental in a far-reaching restructuring of the British National Committee for Geography, the body that, through the Royal Society, was responsible until 1990 for British geography’s links to international bodies such as the International Geographical Union and the International Cartographic Association (Anon. 1970; Geographical Journal 156, 1990, 350).
Larger plans for a Council of British Geography, initiated by the GA, were unsuccessful then, and although a council was established a few years later it has not played a major role, having last met in November 2012 (http://www.cobrig.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016)).
During his RGS presidency Wise was also involved in the discussions that led to the establishment of the Association of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, later the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (http://www.the-academy.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016).
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
This is a useful document and have referred to this several times during the writing of this blog.
Michael was made an Honorary Member of the GA in 1980.
Michael sadly died in 2015, aged 97 - another former GA President to have approached 100 years of age.
References
BBC Obituary
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/about-us/obituaries/obituary-professor-michael-wise-cbe-mc
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-michael-wise-geographer-whose-skills-made-him-a-leading-force-in-his-discipline-for-more-a6808241.html - this is a lengthy piece.
Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_John_Wise
I edited this entry to include a mention of Michael's GA Presidency, as I have with all other Wikipedia pages for Presidents. It's rare to get a Wikipedia page so recent to the present day.
Biography: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KU08DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT117&ots=5ELMysnSPh&dq=alexander%20carr-saunders%20geography&pg=PT101#v=onepage&q&f=false
Address: WISE, M. J. “Geography in Universities and Schools.” Geography, vol. 62, no. 4, 1977, pp. 249–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568785
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
A detailed biography of Michael:
https://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/138330669/MichaelJohnWise_F.pdf
(PDF download)
Wise, M. J. (2001). Becoming a geographer around the second world war. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913250102500112
LSE page: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/condolences/2015/10/26/michael-wise/?from_serp=1
Includes memories from former students such as this from Peter Mitchell.
I studied under Michael Wise 1957-60 and have the warmest memories of his teaching and his personal kindness. We found we were fellow residents of Finchley. I recall going to his inaugural lecture when he got his chair. His enthusiasm for human geography rubbed off on me and with his encouragement I became a town planner. In the 90s I met him once or twice when I was in LSE for BSPS meetings and he was the same as ever. Another nice memory was a field course in his original home ground of the Midlands: a gaggle of us were in an old quarry near Dudley and a small boy was eyeing us questioningly. Far from ignoring him, Michael greeted him with “Hello, our kid”. It’s the little things that you remember!
Update October 2020
He is remembered fondly by Richard Daugherty, who sent me a copy of a letter he received from Michael following the successful launch of 'Teaching Geography' journal which he helped make a case for. It was characteristic of him to thank people in this way when they did work for the GA, something that I hope Presidents have been getting better at in recent years.
Update November 2020
He was also fondly remembered by Denys Brunsden who told me:
The most influential President in my time was Michael Wise (also a fabulous Treasurer), before that S.W.Wooldridge was a monumental presence and Dudley Stamp put the GA on a sound financial course especially with his advice to Michael and in many 'hidden' ways.
Further memories of Michael Wise welcome.
Updated August 2023
https://www.alumni.lse.ac.uk/s/1623/images/editor_documents/alumni_groups/king_s_-_lse_geog_alumni_society_newsletter_2016.pdf - memories of his time at LSE
Those who were at Juniper Hall will remember the final evening’s entertainment of Wise on the piano and Wooldridge rendering songs by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Although he was instrumental in setting up seminars and courses for graduate students, his teaching was to undergraduates both in the Joint School and inter-collegiately for some special options. He continued Stamp’s interest in Applied Geography - his involvement in regional planning shifted from the West Midlands where it was honed, to London and the South East.
Those who still remember the closure of LSE in 1969 and the highly charged political atmosphere will recall LSE’s finding room to continue teaching in Kings and temporary LSE Geography HQ in The Surrey, a pub then in Surrey Street. His military service during World War II, when he gained the Military Cross in Italy, was adapted to the organisation of field courses and handling student humour. Cooperation with colleagues applied across the range of courses, as I discovered when I returned as Lecturer. His door was “open” in the sense that he made time for us and students.
We remember a long list of faithful secretaries whom he cared about, as well as other technical staff at LSE. Even when he was Pro-Director after his “retirement” in 1983 he eagerly agreed to promote students’ suggestion for a new electric locomotive on the West Coast line to be named London School of Economics. This was duly performed by Sir Huw Wheldon, LSE’s chairman of governors. in 1985. One of his last visits to LSE was to witness the unveiling of the conserved name plate in the George IV pub, now a part of LSE in February 2008.
Michael Wise’s involvement in many of the School’s committees and those of the University was always in favour of student welfare, mostly academic. He was adept at garnering allies to achieve his aims. He supported staff and student when needed. Michael also remembered old students, retired staff not only academic or geographical, knowing their individual circumstances often to our surprise. Largely by his efforts he organised and ran for a long time the Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust in memory of his former colleague. This benefitted from his contacts and powers of persuasion, such that funds are still available, through our links with the Royal Geographical Society, for scholars registered at UK universities.
He saw his career as one to serve others, following his mentor R.H.Kinvig at Birmingham.
Michael Wise was only the second geographer to preside over all three main learned geographical societies.
His work on the Departmental Committee on Smallholdings and the Ministry of Transport’s Advisory Committee on Landscape Treatment was recognised in the appointment of CBE in 1979. Internationally his work for the 1964 International Geographical Congress in London led to the IGU presidency and many international honours.
At the centre of his life were his family – his wife Barbara, who died in 2007, daughter and son, five grand-children and four great-grand-children to whom he was devoted. An obituary was published in The Independent on 13 January 2016.
Ron Johnston and I would welcome any recollections any members may like to share.
Updated November 2023
Michael’s first and last published research papers (1948b, 1977) were on the teaching of geography.
As a trained teacher, he placed great store on how geography was taught, as reflected in his commitment to the work of the Geographical Association (GA), and his presidential addresses to that body, the Institute of British Geographers (IBG), and the RGS. To the RGS in 1981 and 1982 he took the opportunity to promote geography as the ‘rewarding study of the rich mosaic of life and landscape’ (Wise 1982, 307).
The GA, established by Mackinder and others in 1893 at the height of the crusade, continued the campaign over the next century, celebrated by Wise at its centenary (Wise 1993). He contributed substantially to those campaigns, as in his membership of a committee that considered the overlap between geography in school sixthforms and university first years (GA 1962).
"Geographers should base our arguments not on the side-door entry of geography as a general education for citizenship, and as a background subject but, through the front entrance, on geography as a disciplined, practical study with its own techniques and tools directly applicable to the problems and tasks of the day. … Let us make geography a subject which does things, not merely one which reads about other people doing them. "
He was Treasurer of the GA from 1967 to 1976, and its President from 1976 to 1977, and was President of the IBG in 1974, having previously served on its council and then as a Vice President; he was made an Honorary Member in 1989. He gave much time to all of these posts, taking good care of their resources and dispensing much quiet and sage advice, as he did also to the Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust, established after the 1964 London International Geographical Congress to provide grants to young scholars; he was its Secretary from 1966 to 1988, and then its Chair until 2005 (when he was made its honorary President).
He was also the founding President of the Transport Studies Society and for ten years (1973–1984) chaired the Executive Committee of the Association of Agriculture and, although he held no office, he was much involved, as his unpublished 1992 paper shows, in the negotiations that led to the establishment of the Regional Studies Association.
Interesting given the news about Alan Kinder's new job for 2024.
Updated July 2024
Bibliographical Studies of Geographer volumes - this one can be partly read on Google Books.
He did so much in his lifetime! A remarkable contribution to geography.
There is mention of his children: Janet Meyer and John Wise.
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