1981: Professor William (Bill) Richard Mead

Updated August 2023

 “He was a very kind and considerate man who won the affection and respect of his many students. 
Self-effacing and modest he took a great interest in other people and was an inspiration to so many geographers.”

Bill Mead was a true gentleman and always a popular visitor to Solly St. with all the staff there, through to the time when I worked there, when I met him a few times.


He sadly died in 2014, just short of his 99th birthday - nearly a century of commitment to geography - quite a legacy left through the work of students he taught - a gift that all of us teachers can be justifiably proud of, and the many books and other written contributions. 

Bill worked as Professor of Geography at UCL IOE - a place with which he was associated for  decades, and which has many close associations with the GA.

I had the chance to talk to him during visits to Solly Street, and I know that for several of the staff at Solly Street he was very much their favourite visitor. He also attended conference regularly and can be seen on many of Bryan Ledgard's images from the time.

There was a celebration of his life at UCL in 2014, when a range of notable geographers, including Dr. Rita Gardner said a few words about his life and work, and how he had influenced so many others during a long and varied career. This provides a great deal of detail on his long and varied career and travels.

Bill Willett's tribute here tells you a lot about Bill's work.

"He said that his love for geography came from his childhood walking and riding in a pony and trap through the lanes and fields of his homeland."

Here is an interview with Bill, which tells you a lot about his upbringing and interest in the subject... a wonderful insight, and well worth an hour of your time as he identifies some key points in his life, and influences. He was a particular lover of Scandinavia. He talks about his own teachers, including one who had been in the army and travelled the world.


Bill trained as a school teacher, training at the College of St Mark and St John in London, and it was this which he often referred to as his real calling and introduction to the subject.

As with many geographers of the time, he also served during the war.

Mead joined the Royal Air Force in autumn 1939 as a volunteer. In 1940 he was posted to Mount Hope, Hamilton, Ontario, in an administrative role. In 1943 he moved back to England working for the Royal Air Force Educational Service. He was demobilised in 1946.

I like this quote from the UCL biography linked to below, written by Hugh Clout:

'Lectures were delivered without notes, as the spirit moved...replete with references to poetry, music, plays, works of fiction and even restaurants'.

Like many other Presidents, he has an association with the London School of Economics.

He was a student at Aylesbury Grammar School, and was remembered fondly there also, including on the school's website. This was followed by a long career in academic geography, and a long connection with UCL.

The library at Aylesbury School is called the Professor William Mead Library.

He wrote a really lovely memoir of his school days in the 1920s and growing up above a shop in Aylesbury - see the end of the post for a link to a copy that can be borrowed on the Internet Archive.

Bill also wrote many pieces for a number of magazines, and reviewed books for the London Review of Books. In one review piece from 1982, he described geography in this way when reviewing three books.

For many people, geography remains the story of exploration. But there is more to it than that, as these three books attest. They present the geographer as the student of landscape, as the environmentalist and as the ideologist.

Also on time:

"although geographers are principally concerned with space they have traditionally taken time by the forelock – time as a dimension of space. Sidereal time moved some of the earliest practitioners of geography. A whole school of geographers has developed around the concept of time as a resource, a resource made coherent by the formal division of time by markers, be they seconds or centuries. Academically, geography spans a borderland. It is among those disciplines that operate between the sciences and the humanities, between the mathematicians and the word-spinners. Its practitioners appreciate the implications of George Steiner’s thesis that for the scientist ‘time and light lie before,’ while the humanist, working essentially with words, is ‘drawn backwards’ because language carries the past within it."

Here's a lovely memory from a former UCL Geographer

Head of the Geog Dept at UCL when I did my degree. Absolutely charming man. On one fieldtrip to the Chilterns he visited us riding on his horse!

— Sue 🌍🕷️ (@Geogger) October 21, 2019

Bill contributed pieces to 'Geography', such as a 1959 piece on Finland, published when he was Reader in Geography at UCL, along with several books on Scandinavian countries and memories of visits there.

He became Professor at UCL in 1961. Head of the Geography department in 1966, he retired in 1981. He received many academic honours, and became a fellow of the British Academy

Bill became GA President as he retired.

His Presidential Address was on the 'Discovery of Europe'

In his Presidential lecture he explored different ideas of Europe, referencing Percy Roxby (former GA President), the author Patrick Leigh Fermor amongst many others.

He ended by suggesting a possible collective noun for geographers, something which crops up from time to time. I have suggested the word confluence: when we flow together we are stronger.

Here's Bill's suggestion: a cordiality of geographers.

He also left funding for a travel fund after he died. Details are here on a page which also involves an image of Bill riding.

Alan Kinder tells me that he also left a legacy which allowed for Scandinavian Geographers to attend the GA Conference.

An obituary by Hugh Clout mentioned this piece by Bill on the theme of 'Success'

He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;

Who has enjoyed the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;

Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;

Who has left the world better than he found it;

Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;

Whose life was an inspiration;

Whose memory a benediction.

And concludes:

Bill Mead was a superb geographer of the highest international stature.  And he was such a kind, thoughtful, and generous man.

Through his scholarship and his humanity, he set high standards to which we can only hope to aspire.

For these remarkable qualities that enriched the lives of all of us.

We thank him and shall never forget him.

Some awards that Bill received:
Fellow British Academy, London School of Economics (honorary), Royal Geography Society (honorary vice president 1981, Founder's medal), Norwegian Academy of Sciences (honorary), Finnish Academy of Sciences (honorary), Scottish Geography Society (Research medal), Swedish Geography Society (Wahlberg Gold medal, Fennia medal), Orders Lion (Finland) (Commander), White Rose (Finland), Polar Star (Sweden), Order Vasa (Sweden).

Bill was still involved with the GA even in later life. The minutes of the AGM at the GA Conference in 2009, which I attended and presented at, show that he was in attendance, and I remember talking to him as it was the first conference since I had joined the staff of the GA to lead on Secondary Curriculum Development. In this, he reflects others with similar service such as H J Fleure.

Bill's was a life very well lived.

This Obituary from the Anglo-Finnish society is a lovely read, full of detail.

References

Source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Richard_Mead
 - and we are back to a Wikipedia page for the first time in some years.

https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/news-events/news/news-archive/2014/august-2014/tribute-to-bill-mead-by-his-friend-bill-willett

http://www.ags.bucks.sch.uk/professor-william-bill-mead/ - library

London Review of Books: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v04/n05/w.r.-mead/an-exploration-of-geography
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n09/w.r.-mead/melton-constable

Biographical Studies: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KU08DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT117&ots=5ELMysnSPh&dq=alexander%20carr-saunders%20geography&pg=PT123#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KU08DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120&lpg=PT120&dq=Professor+Robert+Ogilvie+Buchanan&source=bl&ots=5EMPsonUUg&sig=ACfU3U0p--u8LC_RwQu4YUxt-8vdP9MCVg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjy_bnp2MnmAhWRgVwKHS3VAksQ6AEwCXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Professor%20Robert%20Ogilvie%20Buchanan&f=false - a long description of Bill Mead's work.

This PDF document by Hugh Clout contains a huge amount of detail on Bill Mead's life and is perhaps the main resource to refer to if you want to find out more about him:

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/16%20Mead%201820.pdf - PDF download - over 20 pages on Bill and his legacy

MEAD, W. R. “Frontier Themes in Finland.” Geography, vol. 44, no. 3, 1959, pp. 145–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565048

Presidential Address:

Mead, W. R. “The Discovery of Europe.” Geography, vol. 67, no. 3, 1982, pp. 193–202. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570560. Accessed 26 Sept. 2020.

Obituary: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/professor-bill-mead-wlmwnlppl3c

Anglo-Finnish Society: https://www.anglofinnishsociety.org.uk/focus/

Speech by the Finnish Ambassador at his Memorial event at the RGS in 2014: https://finlandabroad.fi/web/gbr/current-affairs/-/asset_publisher/4ojVRXvbDRVa/content/speech-by-ambassador-pekka-huhtaniemi-at-the-memorial-event-for-bill-mead/384951

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00291951.2016.1155642  

Images: copyright Bryan Ledgard and Geographical Association, used with permission

I would love to hear more memories of Bill Mead. I am sure that many people met him over the last forty years.

Updates October 2020

As part of the work on this entry, I bought a 2nd hand copy of Bill's 'Towards a commonplace geography' and this will feature in a few future posts as there is plenty of interest including an image taken at the GA's Centenary celebrations in 1993.

There will also be some further updates to this post as more memories of Bill arrive in my inbox.

Front cover of one of Bill's books:

Bill was also mentioned by Sheila Jones as an academic geographer who loved the GA and continued to come to conferences well after his career was over. She mentioned Michael Bradford as showing similar service.

Here's Bill at an AGM of the GA.

Image credit: Bryan Ledgard and the Geographical Association

"He was a lovely man and deeply loyal to the GA, turning up at annual conferences long after most academic geographers had become less involved, with a few notable exceptions such as Mike Bradford." - Richard Daugherty

Updated October 2020

Thanks to Brendan Conway for sending me this personal memory of Bill Mead:

Bill Mead was an expert on Finland and did a lot to promote links with the UK. He also had links with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies where a couple of my friends were studying. I seem to recall that his tenure at UCL was drawing to a close around that time I was starting my degree. 

He gave the undergraduates a pep talk and I remember him telling us to 'know where places are' which sounded a bit obvious until he explained how most people (including, it must be admitted, most of us) 'have no idea that much of Finland is east of Istanbul'. 

This was a small but influential incident, because it signalled to me the importance of challenging misconceptions. I've taken this approach throughout my teaching career, emphasising how ‘facts’ can be converted into more powerful geographical knowledge that has the capacity to transform the way we see the world.

His final article has now been published posthumously, edited by Hugh Clout

https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/news-events/news/professor-bill-mead2019s-final-publication

Updated December 2020

Another former President: Simon Catling, told me in a personal communication:

Bill Mead, an academic geographer, seemed ever present, thoughtful, kind and challenging into his 90s. I met him first on a visit from school to the RGS for a Monday night lecture in 1965; he sought out our school group and was most thoughtful and supportive, always interested in young and new geographers, a real friend to geographers. 

He is missed.

Update: December 2020

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. He lent me the letters and Dick Lawton mentioned the influence of Roxby and other geographers including Clifford Darby and Bill Mead on his own academic career at the time.

He says they taught him not only about geography, but how to be a geographer...

Updated August 2023

Some tweaks and amendments.

Five books from Bill Mead are on the Internet Archive

Interestingly, the scanned copy of the book on Aylesbury was a copy personally presented to St. Paul's School in 2009...