Sunday 8 November 2020

1986: Professor Denys Brunsden

Last updated January 2024, with some sad news.

"Field time is your most precious time - how precious you will know only when its days are past" 
(Sauer, 1956)

 Emeritus Professor Denys Brunsden is a legendary geomorphologist, whose work will be familiar to many, particularly with respect to coasts. He has also collaborated frequently with another former President: Andrew Goudie.

 He was a leading person in the successful campaign for the designation of the Jurassic Coast as a World Heritage Site, acting as a Trustee for many years, and is now a Patron of this classic Coastal location - a venue for generations of geography fieldtrips, and classic case study in many textbooks. This has been a coastline which has been part of his life for decades.

Denys is still active, and this video is one that I have used each year for my teaching, looking at the potential impact of coastal erosion on the town of Lyme Regis, and the need to manage it. I try to get to Lyme Regis at least once a year, and we just managed it this year... Denys has written about this area in a large number of books and other papers.



The International Association of Geomorphologists, which Denys helped to instigate, has a Brunsden medal which is awarded annually for work in this area.

Denys was born close to the Jurassic Coast area as well, in Torquay in 1936.

He was educated at Torquay Boys Grammar School, before earning a place at King's College, London.

Here he is talking about his life at this time, and the influence of another GA President Sidney Wooldridge.

In 1956 I went up to Kings College, London, and was advised to study under Sidney Wooldridge, at that time the great geomorphologist. Geomorphology is the study of the shape of the earth, the landforms, and the processes that create them. I was mesmerised by his teaching, and being a bit more mature than the other students I worked harder and got a good degree. When I finished my degree, Wooldridge asked me if I’d like to join as a junior member of staff—straight out of graduation—and I jumped at it, teaching 6 hours of tutorials a week and completing my PhD at the same time. 

 And there I stayed, for the rest of my working life, finishing up as Emeritus Professor and Fellow of the College. It has been my place.

I am sure that I remember Denys speaking about the Karakoram trip at Sheffield University when I was doing my 'A' level Geography around 1982 and we visited to hear the talk. I had the article clipped out of a magazine for some years.

Denys was a Professor of Geography when he became GA President. He has also worked as a consultant in Engineering Geomorphology.
From 'Bridport Life' in 2015:

"I was part of the British Geomorphological Research Group, a new growing group of “young Turks”. We were creating a new subject, writing all the textbooks, each one of us a specialist—one on deserts, one on glaciers, me on landslides. I was one of four people who started a company called Geomorphological Services Ltd—later we went on to create the International Association of Geomorphologists—and that took me to consultancies in some 28 countries and incredible situations; the Ok Tedi gold mine landslide disaster in Tibet; Papua New Guinea, the Dharan to Dhankula Highway in Nepal; all the work in Dubai surveying for the new airport and dry dock infrastructure, at a time when only 18,000 people lived there, there was no high-rise, and dhows were going back and forth across the creek. Even now I’m working for BP offshore looking at the sea bed for pipelines and well sites."

His Presidential Address was called 'The Science of the Unknown' and referred to the importance of fieldwork as well as other things.



 There are quite a few quotes from this address relevant to my own proposed conference theme.

Denys explored some ideas that I've also used over the years when teaching CPD courses for the GA on fieldwork, local studies (heimatkunde) - which goes back to Keltie and Mackinder, and Physiography.
He also mentions Wooldridge who was a geologist turned geographer and had a great interest in fieldwork, which is something woven through the history of the GA. 
He also refers directly to some of the themes that had occupied his time as President of the Association with regard to the well-being of the subject.


 Denys told me some other things about his time at the GA.

Denys told me about his various involvement in the GA, which is very impressive.
1956-9 Student Member 
1960-to date Member 
1962-7 Assistant Conference officer. All conferences and the annual Conference were held at the London School of Economics
1968. Published Dartmoor in the 'Geography through Maps' Series 
1968-74 Honorary Conference Officer. Annual at LSE. 
1968-74 Member Executive Committee. 
1974-79 Member of Council. 
1973-76 Member of the Organisation and Development Committee which re-organised the whole committee structure of the GA and much remains to this day. We also proposed the Council for British Geography (CoBRIG) and set up the new publications such as Primary Geography: Great movers in this period were Sheila Jones and Pat Cleverley. 
1975-78 Representative on the Council for Environmental Education for the GA
1984-6. Vice-President
1986-7. President
1987-8 Senior Past-President
1988 GA representative on the Nature Conservation Working Party for Science at the Dept. Educ. Science. 
Denys also organised the GA Consultation on the 'Future of Geography' with J. K. St Joseph, Minister for Education at the time.

I also asked Denys about his memories of other GA Presidents at the time. 

The longest serving was probably Alice Garnett. She 'owned it". The most faithful supporters were Robert Steele and all the Presidents of that time. 
The most influential 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.

Denys also pointed out the particular influence that King's College, London has had on the development of the GA, in the same way as other key institutions which have kept cropping up through the last century or so that I have been blogging about. Those include LSE, Oxford University, Aberystwyth University, Manchester University and Sheffield University amongst others.

Denys told me:

You should mention the important role of the KCL/LSE contribution during the 1950-1990 period. The annual conferences were always held at LSE. 
The successive members of staff who did the work of organising conference included the following people, who I will try to find out more about.

Tom Elkins - Professor of Geography at the University of Sussex
Jim Bird
Peter O'Dell (or Odell)
Denys Brunsden 
David Jones
Barrie Morgan - strongly linked to King's College, London
https://www.strandlines.london/2012/08/01/memories-of-the-strand-dr-barrie-morgan/
David Green
A massive un-recognised contribution. Something for me to pursue further. 
We also all served on the lecture circuit, all of the academics (all universities) lectured to the branches and to school conferences. The link to Universities at that time was very strong.

Sheila Jones told me of the importance of the GA conference organiser in her messages to me, and mentioned that Denys helped organise her own conference.

Denys also got involved in the production of a Channel 4 TV series called Landshapes, which I remember using when I first started teaching as I had the series on video. It also included Rita Gardner - Director of the RGS-IBG, David Jones and Professor Andrew Goudie.
It was presented by Tim Preece.

It was made in 1988.

A series of seven programmes looking at the geomorphology of Britain and Ireland.

Part 1: The stiperstones of Shropshire, which are representative of some of the most ancient rocks found in the British Isles.
Part 2: The landscape created since the last Ice Age, concentrating mainly on Norfolk where the sands and gravels represent some of the youngest and weakest rocks of the British Isles.
Part 3: How the ice sheet influences land shapes in the mountainous regions of Britain, showing the glacial cradles of North Wales and the rivers estuaries of Ireland and Cornwall.
Part 4: The landscapes created by the melting waters of the Ice Age. Shows some spectacular scenery such as Devil’s Dyke, Cheddar Gorge and the waterfalls of Teeside.
Part 5: The erosion of the coastline caused by the sea undermining the soft rocks. Concentrates on southern and eastern England where land is being reclaimed by the sea.
Part 6: Because the British Isles lie on the edge of one of the earth’s plates, the 10,000 miles of coastline are very varied. The shoreline is shaped by the constant battle between the waves and the rocks.
Part 7: The effects of man’s actions on the landscape since his earliest ancestors used ‘slash and burn’ techniques to clear the ancient forests. Soil erosion caused by agriculture in places where the forest was completely felled created the wetland landscape. Human activity has thus changed the landscape sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

The episodes in bold are ones I remember using in my teaching. The music was very memorable as well.

References
Denys doesn't have a Wikipedia page, although he certainly deserves to have one. More recent GA Presidents don't have pages yet, perhaps that will be a follow up to this project.

Jurassic Coast website: https://jurassiccoast.org/trustees/prof-denys-brunsden/

http://www.marshwoodvale.com/people/2015/12/denys-brunsden/

http://www.bridportlife.co.uk/people/denys-brunsden/ - this has a range of fascinating information on Denys from his own words, including the fact his son plays bass in 'Hothouse Flowers'.... also goes into more detail on his work on the Jurassic Coast.

"Education is key; if people understand what they’re observing then they respect it, and from respect comes a sense of ownership, a stake in something which then has a far better chance of being looked after and conserved for the future."

Presidential Address: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40571619 - "The Science of the Unknown" (1987)


A classic book here:

Denys has written and contributed to a great many books, papers and articles.
I have a copy of this particular guide book of the Jurassic Coast he was involved in creating.

Denys also worked on a number of projects with another former GA President Andrew Goudie, who will be featured on the blog in a few weeks' time. He wrote an Atlas of the Environment of the UK with Andrew.

As always, if anyone has further information relating to Denys Brunsden please let me know so that I can expand on this post.

 Top image: provided by Denys Brunsden, taken by Professor Jesse Walker of Louisiana State University

Update November 2020
Alan Kinder let me know that Denys first joined the GA in 1956, when Lord Nathan was the GA President - a very different era of Presidents to now.

A report on Deny's Conference was published in 'Geography' in 1988
Source:

Humphrys, Graham, et al. “Annual Report of The Geographical Association 1987.” Geography, vol. 73, no. 2, 1988, pp. 162–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571395. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.

Some tweets:
Advice to young geomorphologists in his #IAG2013 keynote 'Think outrageously, be unconstrained'.

Update March 2021


Updated July 2022

A lovely piece written for the KCL Geography newsletter by Denys, now 85.

It provides a nice potted biography of his life and achievements, sixty years on from doing his degree.


Here's a lovely interview with Denys too:


Updated August 2023

New out in November 2022 from Denys and Andrew Goudie.


A sad update in January 2024.


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