Why Study Geography?

I am going to be posting an entry tomorrow for Patrick Bailey, the GA President in 1985. I've just had a book published which tries to answer the question 'Why Study Geography?' - I took over 200 pages to answer that question, but in his Presidential Address in 1986, Patrick Bailey answered the question in a couple of paragraphs:

"Studying geography teaches us a number of particular lessons about the world and our place in it. These lessons derive directly from our observations of the earth's surface and Mankind's activities upon it. The lessons can be learned from studying no other subject and they are, I maintain, the justifications for including geography in everybody's school education. 

For geographers there are, I suggest, two over-riding purposes in teaching the subject: first, to lead students towards learning these lessons for themselves, whenever possible from evidence presented; and second, to try to equip them to learn further lessons about the world and their place in it from new evidence which they themselves obtain. I regard the latter as very important. If any teaching at any level fails to generate independent learning, it must be regarded as a failure. The following are the main lessons I think we can learn from studying geography and which therefore ought to be contained within any worthwhile geography course. I have arranged them in one order; there are others. The lessons should, I believe, inform the whole of a course, being treated in different ways and at different levels of difficulty as the course progresses."

References

Bailey, Patrick. “A Geographer's View: Contributions of Geography to the School Curriculum.” Geography, vol. 71, no. 3, 1986, pp. 193–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571121. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.

1985 - Keith Joseph on geography in schools

Updated October 2020

In 1985, the Secretary of State for Education addressed the GA's Conference and talked about some proposed changes to the school curriculum.

This resulted in a response from the GA, which was concerned at the implications for Geography's position on the school curriculum. I have blogged that previously, slightly out of sequence perhaps.

In his book on UK School geography, Rex Walford talks about his involvement in the response, and also the work of Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns (who are coming up on the blog shortly) in writing 'A Case for Geography'.

Keith Joseph asked 7 questions and Patrick Bailey responded, sort of calling his bluff according to Rex Walford.

There was also a response from Denys Brunsden, who was Senior Vice President of the GA at the time, on behalf of the BGRG.

This was all part of an ongoing process starting with a James Callaghan speech in the 1970s which opened up the 'secret garden' of curriculum. It became known as the 'Great Debate'.

Geography was a popular option under a 'free market', but the emergence of the TVEI (I used to have a TVEI tie back in the day) was an element in cutting down choice. It also led to the founding of COBRIG in 1988 and closer working with the RGS-IBG.

This was about getting "a place in the sun".

References

"A Case for Geography" - published by the GA, edited by Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40571306.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23751212.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A6ebe5211589a8ba858eec7824db86441 - responses to Keith Joseph from Patrick Bailey

Bailey, Patrick. “A Reply to Sir Keith Joseph's Seven Questions, from the President of the Geographical Association.” Teaching Geography, vol. 11, no. 2, 1986, pp. 64–67. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751212. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.

Richard Daugherty on Sheila Jones

Richard Daugherty was the GA President in 1989, and his own post on the blog will be published sometime in November if I stay on the current schedule. He has offered to write a whole host of new updates for the blog around his own work at the time, which included some time as Honorary Secretary (Education)

A recent e-mail included a lovely additional update on Sheila Jones, who was the GA President in 1975, at a time when she was a Deputy Head in a comprehensive school.

The following is from Richard:

Sheila was at the heart of so much the Association achieved during the 1970s and 1980s. The characteristically warm comments from others about her contribution capture much of the several ways in which she was involved. I would like to add a little more about what Sheila did for the GA both before and after her Presidency in the mid 1970s. 

She and I first met when I joined the ‘ginger group’ GA committee, ‘Models and Quantitative Techniques (M&QT)’ in the 1960s. Key contributors, such as Rex Walford and Brian Fitzgerald, to the ideas that were changing the teaching of geography have rightly been acknowledged. But every committee about teaching also needs members whose daily work is in classrooms and who are willing to put in the work needed to keep those ideas flowing. In her roles, first as secretary and then as chair, Sheila did just that. 

 Others have referred to Sheila’s part throughout her teaching career in making the Bristol GA branch so successful, supported by the University’s Geography Department. After she had been President Sheila became more than just the GA’s Branch Officer in the formal sense. She was the voice of the branches, always to be listened to, in any discussion at national level. 

 Lastly, but not to be underestimated in the era of Barnaby Bear, Sheila was the pioneer, with the help of Pat Cleverley, in developing a range of GA branded gifts to be sold as both emblems of commitment and a source of income for the Association. Irked by the availability of a male only garment, GA ties, Sheila started by insisting that scarves for female members should also be sold. 

What originated as a ‘cottage industry’ managed by Sheila from home developed over the years into a significant aspect of the Association’s work.

Thanks for the update. Perhaps the ties and scarves need to return to the GA shop.

Richard Daugherty on H. J. Fleure

Another contribution to the blog which has been very kindly  provided by Richard Daugherty, GA President in 1989.

He writes here about H. J. Fleure. This is drawn on research he did at the Sheffield City Archives on the history of certain episodes in the GA's history. Once we are able to visit such place more freely I hope to get there. 

Fleure's original entry, from 1948 can be viewed here.

I also wrote about the move of the GA to Aberystwyth and the role of Fleure (and his assistants in the library) at that time.

The blog already refers to Fleure as being one of the 'true greats' in the Association's history. But should he perhaps be seen as the true great? 

There has been no other Honorary Secretary in the GA' s history who served in that office for as long as 29 years (1917 to 1946). And there is certainly no other past Honorary Secretary who increased the GA membership fourfold during their first three years in that office. 

One episode that reveals how much work, in addition to building up the Association's profile and membership, Fleure put in behind the scenes is the GA's office move from Aberystwyth to Manchester in 1930. Correspondence lodged in the GA records held in the Sheffield City Archives shows how he achieved such a satisfactory result, free office and library accommodation in Manchester City Council's High School of Commerce Building. 

Until Fleure's move from what is now Aberystwyth University to a post as Professor in Manchester University's Geography Department he carried out his work for the GA from an office located at 11 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth. 

With Fleure due to take up his new post in Manchester later in the year, the GA Executive considered offers of office accommodation from both the University, Fleure's new employers, and from the city's Education Committee. The University's offer was of a three year tenancy at 18 Lime Grove at a rent of £20 per year. Correspondence between Fleure and a Mr Stevenson, Chief Inspector of Schools for Manchester City Council, resulted in a better deal and the eventual move to the Council's High School of Commerce building. 

A letter from Fleure to Stevenson dated 1st March 1930 explains that the GA by then needed space for a library of 4000 books and its collection of lantern slides as well as room for an office. 

Fleure said:

"The possibility of my continuing my work for the Association as Hon Secretary depends on my having its office and library either in the Department of Geography or very near it" 

Where would the Association be today without such influential individuals as Fleure, who arranged and carried out the move to Manchester, and his successors who negotiated later office moves, first to university accommodation in Sheffield and then to the current offices in Solly Street?

GA Badges for long serving members

People who are long-standing personal members of the GA have been receiving special badges over the last few weeks. I have been a group or personal member since the 1980s, when I completed my PGCE in Geography. 

Good to see a picture of long-standing member John Morris. He has supported GA Branch activity for many years.

Lovely to see so many people receiving their GA member badges! Here's John Morris with his 50 year badge! #geographyteacher #NeverBeenAMoreImportantTime pic.twitter.com/ughBk3xkSw

— Geographical Assoc (@The_GA) October 26, 2020

He appeared in the photo of Pat Cleverley in a recent post.

1985: A world turned upside down

In 1985, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal delivered this joint GA/RGS/IBG lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on the 10th April 1985. This was Pat Cleverley's conference and she sent me a copy of the conference programme as well, which has appeared on another post on the blog.

He was also known as Sonny Ramphal.

This event was one of the first introductions for many to the Peters projection rather than Mercator, and he called on geographers to help people see the world in the round. I remember starting to see a Peters map around this time, and bought one when I first started teaching. Radical geography!

This was one of the highlights of that year's conference for many according to reports, and he was a high profile guest of the conference that year.

Reference

Ramphal, Shridath S. “A World Turned Upside Down.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 3, 1985, pp. 193–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570953. Accessed 26 Sept. 2020.

1984: Miss Pat J Cleverley

Updated December 2020

Pat Cleverley was involved with the GA for many years before her Presidential year began. She was the second female teacher President of the GA after Sheila Jones in 1975.

Throughout the late 1970s and 80s before taking up the role, she represented the GA on a number of committees and also had a role in other aspects of both the GA and the RGS (which was also very common until more recently).
She has a strong link with the city of Bristol, which has provided a number of Presidents over the years, as mentioned in John Westaway's Presidential address, and still lives there to this day.

A memory from Rex Walford here:
"There was some fieldwork involved in the two Madingley conferences which I attended (1966 and 1967), I think) but my most memorable formative experience of that period was attending a week in 1968/1969 led by Dr C. Board (ISE) and Dr C.D. Morley (King's). It was run as an in-service course for teachers and based in Central London at a hall of residence in Cartwright Gardens. From memory, Rex Beddis, John Everson, Brian Fitzgerald, Pat Cleverley and Sheila Jones were also participants in the course...."

She was also mentioned and pictured in John Westaway's Presidential Address, which is shown below.

 

She had a long teaching career and was a member of the Secondary Schools Section Committee (now the SPC), which I also served on for almost 15 years, latterly as Secretary.  Several other GA Presidents have served on this committee over the years, and it makes a good proving ground perhaps for those who want to develop further in their involvement with the GA.

Pat taught geography (of course) at Withywood School in Bristol and was teaching at the time she was President - a rare thing as regular readers will know. 

The school itself closed in August 2008. Another colleague from the school also presented at Pat's conference.

Pat was also involved in the push for the GA to launch a journal for teachers which became 'Teaching Geography', first published from April 1975 as we have seen recently. More to come on that from other Presidents over time.

Pat wrote reviews of many books, which were published in 'Teaching Geography' over the years. I've similarly been asked to review books while on the SPC (as have other members) as well as helping judge the GA Publisher's Awards. This is all part of the ways that people can contribute to the work of the Association and support the staff at Solly Street. Pat also co-wrote a book on S E Asia.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25285988?versionId=30484891

Miss Cleverley was made an honorary member of the Geographical Association, and remains so.

I was put in touch with Pat in September 2020, just ahead of the writing of blog posts about other Bristol-based Presidents. Thanks to John Westaway and Sheila Jones for some further information on Pat. John kindly put me in touch with Pat.

Pat sent me a lovely parcel of memorabilia in October 2020.

This included an original photograph - a version of the one which was in the journal and shown at the top of the page. Pat is on the left, Vic Dennison is in the middle, and Sheila Jones is on the right - all based in Bristol. This was taken in Sheffield.

Pat is shown in this image sitting between Sheila Jones and Bill Mead.

Image credit: Bryan Ledgard and the Geographical Association

Here are the details that Pat sent through to me:

Born: Bristol, February 1935

1946: 11+ exam passed and headed to Colston's Girls School

1954-8: University of Bristol

Open Entrance Scholarship to Geography department. Graduated in 1957 followed by PGCE.

By 1958, Pat was on the committee of the local branch of the GA, which was very influential, and involved working with people from all regions. She regularly attended the annual conference, which was held over New Years, before New Years Day became a holiday, and always at LSE.

1985: Pat sent me the programme from her conference, and a copy of her Presidential address, which was called 'Classroom Hot Spots Change Again".

Pat also spent a number of years on the RGS Geography committee, which was quite influential because of the people who served on it at the time, but she felt it was not particularly active. 

Pat was the first President from a comprehensive school (they were relatively new at the time - when I started at secondary school in 1982 they were using up the old stock of folders which said High School on them...) This made her something of an "alien species" at the RGS at the time.

When Pat was GA President she was working as the Deputy Head of an 1800 pupil 11-18 Comprehensive school, and she ended her career as a Headteacher. Very impressive considering the pressures that both rolls produce.

In her Presidential year, she remembers being very busy. She had invitation to other banches, and went to as many as she could. She also attended the SAGT conference.

She finished her letter by sending her best wishes for my own GA conference, and some memories of attending the memorial service for Rex Walford, her predecessor as President, and the Cathedral being full.

References

Fyfe, Elspeth M., et al. “Annual Report of the Geographical Association 1985.” Geography, vol. 71, no. 2, 1986, pp. 160–168. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571092. Accessed 4 Aug. 2020.

Williams, Michael, et al. “Annual Report of the Geographical Association 1984.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 2, 1985, pp. 142–149. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571969. Accessed 4 Aug. 2020.
Mentioned in: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6100/1/6100_3452.PDF

If anyone knows of more information about Pat Cleverley and her time at the GA please get in touch.

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 Pat had sent a response.

She says that her father had influenced here, and also the teacher she had in Years 9-11 at Colston's - she maintained contact with her until she died.

Many thanks to Chris Kington for the loan of the letters.

SLN: Gold award winning website

"It's a bit like a shanty town - it grows and changes with the people who do things."

Chris Durbin

SLN is (or was) the Staffordshire Learning Network.

It won the prestigious Gold Award from the GA. I have four Silver Awards but have never made it to Gold - yet.

It was founded by county advisors Chris Durbin and Kate Russell, along with developer Andy Holt, and included a bulletin board and a range of resource sharing areas and projects. It grew quickly and in the early part of the 2000s became the place to be with some well known contributors, some of whom became (and remain) friends, and others of whom left teaching or disappeared over the years.

We had three SLN field weekends when some of us got together. The first was to Hartington Hall, the second was to Norfolk - staying at Burnham Deepdale and heading along the coast to a number of locations, and finally to Moira in Staffordshire. These involved field trips and resource swaps and some drinks and chat. I made some great friends via SLN, and it helped me develop as teacher through the second half of the 'noughties' when I also started teaching the Pilot GCSE Geography and then joined the GA.

A TES piece is here.

All memories of SLN (the Twitter of its day) welcome.

Why Study Geography

There are plenty of former GA Presidents mentioned in my new book. Plenty of mentions for the Geographical Association's work as well.

"I have always been a Geographer and have always believed that the state of geography in universities depends on attracting good sixth formers to become undergraduates."

Andrew Goudie 

My latest solo authored book comes out today. I've had copies for a week, and colleagues and some of those who contributed to the book have been receiving copies as well. Family copies are earmarked and  I'm delighted with the finished product, which is part of a growing series of books asking the same question for different subjects.

There's already been interest from a number of countries including the USA and Turkey, and I'm hoping for further reviews in addition to the ones that the publishers have already elicited from geographical journals and organisations, and individuals who can help the book reach its intended markets.

It is called 'Why Study Geography' and is published by the London Publishing Partnership.

It explores why students should continue to study the subject, and provides answers to a number of key questions from Y9-13, plus their parents and UCAS tutors.

Here they are opposite on the Contents page.

The final chapter contains links to over 50 resources to support your exploration of geography including films, books, websites, podcasts and others.

It explores all aspects of the subject and is unashamedly 100% geography. 

There are so many people who have helped me out with the book in various ways. These include colleagues from the GA and the RGS, along with teaching colleagues. It includes vignettes from a number of people including Kit Racklet, Corinna Hawkes and Ben Hennig. There are details of how the subject developed, and more on academic geography. It finishes by exploring the reasons why geography matters now more than ever - mirroring the theme of this year's GA Conference under the Presidency of Gill Miller.

Copies will be available from additional outlets soon including bookshops, online outlets, Book Depository and others.

I would suggest it would make a good book for a number of different groups of people:

- students - of different ages

- parents

- UCAS tutors / careers advisers

- geography teachers - both ECT and experienced teachers

- teacher educators - ITE colleagues from a number of different routes

Look out for lots of tweets with the hashtag #whystudygeography over the next week or so as we try to make as many people as possible aware of the book and its potential value for their work.

If you do get a copy, please post a review on Amazon.

1986: Vademecum

Here's an image of my vademecum.... but what is a vademecum?

A vademecum is essentially a guidebook to the sources of information and materials that would be useful for a particular purpose.
In this case, it's a Geographer's vademecum, so it includes some ideas for materials and connections that would be useful for geographers, and geography educators.

In 1986, I started my Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course at Hull University, along with 20 or so other trainee Geography teachers from all sorts of backgrounds. My main subject was Geography of course, and Computer Science was my secondary subject (I later ended up teaching both GCSE and 'A' Level Computer Science as well as Geography).

My tutor was the late Vincent Tidswell, in his last year in the job before he retired. He had an amazing wealth of experience, which we drew on through the course.
Vincent had previously worked at Hereford College of Education, and written several books which were very well known, on themes related to Human Geography. He had also, along with Rex Walford, explored the role of simulation games in education. The Herefordshire Farm Game featured Mr. Brown, the farmer at Canon Pyon and students had to make decision on land-use changes. It became a regular part of my teaching.

Vincent told us that we should be creating materials ourselves for our particular students rather than just using the textbooks... curriculum making was already becoming part of our practice.

John Charles Hancock
Published by G. Philip (1978)
ISBN 10: 0540010316 ISBN 13: 9780540010318

Mind the Gap

A chasm has developed between those who teach at school and those who teach in universities. 

(Goudie, 1993, p. 338)

https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/file/fb632058-9648-411d-a3eb-d1b6b5c199d0/1/fulltext.pdf - PDF download.

Written by Gemma Collins and Graham Butt, this piece has the title:

''Mind the Gap!' Or, how can we bring together geography education in schools and universities?'

This has been something the GA has been involved in for many decades.

1983: Geography and the Future

Rex Walford's Presidential Lecture had the title "Geography and the Future".
It can be downloaded from the GA website or accessed vis JSTOR.
It is very much worth a read.









References

Walford, Rex. “Geography and the Future.” Geography, vol. 69, no. 3, 1984, pp. 193–208. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570839.

1983: Rex Walford - "teacher who made geography fun"

Updated August 2023

Rex Walford was a polymath and a genius geographer, a talented musician and much more.
He is still thought of fondly and remembered by geographers the world over.

“Everyone who met Rex knew very quickly they were in the company of an extraordinary man. He had a huge heart, boundless curiosity, sharp intelligence and above all commitment and enthusiasm which was infectious and mobilising. 
He is an enormous loss to the world of geography education.”
David Lambert

Rex Walford was involved in very many aspects of the GA over the years, and this entry could end up being one of the longer ones on the blog just because of the sheer amount of things that Rex did with, and for the GA. He led a great deal of policy work and wrote a great many books and articles which were published by the GA. His energy and enthusiasm were legendary. His wife Wendy has attended GA Conferences regularly (before and) since his untimely passing and been involved in the development of the Rex Walford Award offered by the RGS-IBG, along with the creation of the annual Rex Walford lecture given at the GA Conference, which is aimed at early career teachers - a group that Rex did so much to nurture and inspire during his career.

I knew Rex, as the school where I worked for 20 years: King Edward VII in King's Lynn took trainees from Homerton College, University of Cambridge for many decades, and I also employed several of them as a Head of Department and worked with them, and met him numerous times when he came in to observe them teaching, before Liz Taylor succeeded him on his retirement from the post. It's a relationship I've maintained to this day, although my annual visit this year has been postponed... I shall be back next year I hope to speak to the 2021 cohort.

At the time, I shared Rex's interest in the use of games and simulations, and he made regular contributions to 'Teaching Geography' through this time, sharing ideas created by his students and there will be some shared on the blog. I have his book on 'Games and Simulations in Geography' published by Chris Kington on the shelf by my desk in my classroom.

I chatted to Rex when the GA finally purchased Solly Street and celebrated with a reception including David Blunkett as a guest of honour and a gathering of many former Presidents as it happened (although I didn't appreciate who all of them were at the time). This was a lovely occasion and one which drew several Presidents who had been involved with the process of locating and eventually securing Solly Street as the second Sheffield home of the GA after Fulwood Road. Some images from that evening have already appeared on the blog, with others still to come, taken by Bryan Ledgard.

There was also the 2010 Madingley venue for the Geography Teacher Educators' (GTE) conference, which I attended and spoke at, regarding the nature of the GA's support for trainee teachers. Rex had brought along his collection of memorabilia from the original Madingley lectures, which was fascinating to look through and talk about, and he spoke to us about the ongoing influence of those lectures and the many geographers they influenced. I have already mentioned the Quantititive Geography group, and Richard Daugherty has kindly provided further detail on their work.

There was also his commitment to the Charney Manor conferences, which have been running for over 20 years now. He edited a number of books in this series of papers from the conference, and I have copies of several of them in my collection of books as well.

It was such a shock to hear of Rex's untimely death, during the time I worked at Solly Street in a tragic boating accident on the River Thames over the Christmas period. It was a sad week, and the GA responded by opening a book of condolences which was soon filling with happy memories of encounters with Rex linked to his many and various interests.

This obituary was written by Mike Younger and Joan Whitehead and provides a useful summary of Rex's career.



I wrote about it on LivingGeography here and this included a memory of Rex. I was also honoured to visit a special commemorative event held at Wolfson College in that same year and hear several speeches from colleagues and Rex's wife.

Something about Rex's varied life next:

Rex started out working as a journalist for the Hendon Times series of newspapers, but then became head of geography at St Mary’s Church of England Secondary School in Hendon. In 1962 he was appointed lecturer in geography and mathematics at Maria Grey College, Twickenham, later becoming senior tutor.

In 1973 he moved to Cambridge as university lecturer in geography and education. In that role, which he held until 1999, Walford inspired hundreds of young geography teachers. He played a major part in transforming the teaching of geography. In the early 1990s he was head of what was then the University Department of Education.
A chronology taken from the document that was handed out at a memorial event.

• 1934 Born in Edgware, Middlesex
• 1945 Scholarship to University College School, Hampstead
• 1951-58 Part-time journalist with Hendon and Finchley Times
• 1952-55 London School of Economics (B.Sc. Econ)
• 1952 Acquires a BSA Bantam
• 1955-58 Kings College, London (PGCE and BD)
• 1958-62 Head of Geography, St Mary‘s C of E School, Hendon
• 1960-61 Northwestern University, USA (MA)
• 1961 Hits a four off Jim Laker for the US International Team
• 1962-73 Geography Lecturer/Senior Tutor, Maria Grey College, Twickenham
• 1969 Marries Wendy Kirby at John Keble Church, Mill Hill
• 1973-99 Lecturer/Head of Dept., School of Education, Cambridge
• 1999 Pilkington Prize for "teaching excellence‟ – Cambridge
• 2000 OBE for "contributions to geographical scholarship‟
• 2003 Anglia Ruskin University (PhD)
• 2008 Acquires a Harley Davidson XL

'Geography through the Window'
Ashley Kent
Described here:



Rex is also referenced in Jo Norcup's PhD thesis when she talks about his involvement in setting up a working group to explore the way that the GA was tackling a new multicultural society, and the way it was being represented in the work of the GA, and also in geography textbooks, as well as classrooms. Rex was very much involved in that work. 

Rex was also chosen to represent the GA in meetings with the SAGT which were held in the late 1970s to help the associations work more closely together - this is a relationship which persists to this day with fraternal greetings exchanged at the relative conferences.

Rex is also remembered in the creation of an RGS-IBG award for NQTs who produce resources based around the theme of the RGS's Young Geographer of the Year each year. We will return to that again as well. Steve Rawlison was one of those former Presidents involved in the discussions around the creation of this Award, and there is also an annual Rex Walford Memorial lecture at the GA Conference each year. Rex was associated with the RGS-IBG of course, and helped with their support for new teachers and also those applying for Chartered Geographer status.
Rex contributed to a great many books, one of which is pictured here:


As mentioned earlier, in 1983, he was part of a GA Working Party which was tasked with looking at the provision for multi-cultural education and helped produce some work in that area which has been the focus for a previous blog post.



Rex was a tireless supporter of Geography, and wrote many letters to organisations who he felt could perhaps support the cause of the GA in the promotion of geography.
Here is an example from 1984


Memories here are from Australian geographers, showing his influence was global. See later for an image linked to that as well.

Rex's memorial service was held at Ely Cathedral, a building I now see every day, and visit regularly, towering over the school where I work, and which was packed out that day.
Young teachers can still gain lots from Rex's legacy.
I often think of Rex when I sit in the Cathedral with my students from the King's Ely school.

I was also pleased to get Rex Walford's memories on what gave him the 'spark' for geography which was part of Chris Kington's project around his own Presidency. Chris loaned me the letters a year ago. 

Rex talked about the importance of maps in books, particularly the front papers of the Wind in the Willows. He also references the Milly Molly Mandy Story Book and Reader as being an early influence on him.

Rex was also involved in drama and acting.

He was the Chairman of the Cambridge Drama Festival.

His obituary was published in Varsity.

Treasured amongst friends and colleagues as a lover of theatre, Dr Walford was chairman of Cambridge Drama Festival until his death.

Tricia Peroni, Acting Secretary of the group, wished to share with Varsity: "Rex inspired many people in the world of amateur theatre. He was a man who loved life; he was intelligent and encouraging, full of energy and enthusiasm, and all who he came into contact with him were captivated by his warmth and charm."

"He gave himself wholeheartedly to every one of his ‘projects’ and he was a vibrant part of theatre in Cambridge. It was a privilege to work with Rex and we are richer for having known him."

Famed for squeezing rehearsals into his tight teaching schedule, Dr Walford particularly contributed to the transformation of secondary school geography teaching. For a quarter of a century he ran the post-graduate teacher-education course for the subject and can be credited with filling schools nationwide with a stream of enthusiastic educators.

There was also a mention of his links with the Meridian School in Royston.

Dr Walford’s innovative teaching approach based on active participation went beyond the seminar room as he dedicated 22 years to the Meridian School in Royston whose headteacher, Dr Mike Firth, will remember him as "extremely well-liked and dedicated to the school."

Dr Walford was due to continue to offer day-school and residential courses at the Madingley School for the Institute of Continuing Education.

A former student, Peter Freeman, fondly remembers an occasion when the don gave up his coffee break to help him to surprise his sister. "One does not forget such kindness. He will prove irreplaceable."

A dedicated Christian, Dr Rex Walford also made good use of his retirement to study for a theological doctorate. It is this ability to live life to the full that will allow Dr Rex Walford to live on and inspire those who knew him.

Congratulations to Emily Chandler who was announced as this year's Rex Walford Award winner yesterday.

References

Rex doesn't have a Wikipedia page - perhaps that needs to be rectified. He certainly deserves one given the influence he has had and perhaps I shall go back through the Presidents once this blog project has finished, and use the research here (and perhaps additional contributions from others) to create a page for any former GA President who does not already have one.

An obituary can be read here.

http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6849/1/2015NorcupPhD.pdf - Jo Norcup thesis - see p.232 onwards

https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/news/obits/walford_rex/ - Cambridge College Obituary
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rex-walford-6565rjr7vt0

Morrish, Mike. “Obituary: Rex A. Walford OBE 1934-2011.” Geography, vol. 96, no. 2, 2011, pp. 105–107. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41320343.

Also in The Guardian, in a piece by Mike Younger and Joan Whitehead.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2011/mar/10/rex-walford-obituary

Walford, Rex. “Finding Grenada on the Map.” Area, vol. 18, no. 1, 1986, pp. 56–57. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20002261

Linnell, Andrew. “REX ASHLEY WALFORD OBE 14 February 1934-2 January 2011.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 177, no. 2, 2011, pp. 192–193. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41238029. Accessed 4 Apr. 2020.

Walford, Rex. “Mackinder, the GA in Wartime and the National Curriculum.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 117–123. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572493.

I will not attempt to list all Rex's contributions to GA Journals as they run to the hundreds probably.

Tony Binns book:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LvJ5CwAAQBAJ&pg=PT293&lpg=PT293&dq=cyril+norwood+geography&source=bl&ots=_1Lsigvfcz&sig=ACfU3U33bqK9vMOWZ2ioDCAYQgLo7mQyGg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjpOyZieDjAhUlQkEAHUGhC-I4ChDoATAFegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=cyril%20norwood%20geography&f=false

https://www.agta.asn.au/conf2011/tribute/walford_r.php

Referenced by David Hicks: https://www.teaching4abetterworld.co.uk/Downloads/download3.pdf

Contributions made to the TES over the years: https://www.tes.com/author/rex-walford

And finally, this blog would not have been possible without the substantial referencing from the book that Rex wrote about School Geography in the UK.

If anyone has further memories of Rex they would like to share with respect to his time at the GA, please let me know. This is a post which may well have quite a few updates as time passes. Thanks to Steve Rawlinson for sending his memories.

He was even remembered in Australia after his death, at the GTAV conference in 2011. His influence reached all around the world he studied and loved. Rita Gardner dedicated her lecture at AGTA that same year to Rex as well: https://www.agta.asn.au/conf2011/presentations/gardner_r.php

Update October 2020

Thanks to Brendan Conway for sending his own memories of Rex, and the link with his own PGCE tutor: Mike Younger.

Rex Walford conducted the final observation for my PGCE at Highfield School in Letchworth. I remember being very nervous as he was already a legendary figure. However, when he arrived he immediately put me at my ease. The lesson was about anticyclones so I had taken what was then a bit of a pedagogical risk by using some of my own photos, taken during a BUNAC programme visit to the USA in the previous summer.

At the end of the trip I’d been to stay with relatives in the mountains above San Bernardino in Southern California. One day I took a series of photos of smog building up from the early morning until midday over greater Los Angeles on the plain below. I used the images to show the students how anticyclonic inversion layers trap the smog in the valley like a bath filling up with dirty water, eventually cascading over cols into neighbouring valleys. Other resources I used included local newspaper smog forecasts with warnings for those with respiratory ailments. There was nothing like that available in the UK at that time.

After the lesson, Rex was kind enough to spend a long time chatting about the lesson (which he thankfully enjoyed) and the geography of the topic. He was particularly affirming about my decision to use personal experience as an educational resource and my teaching of the atmospheric processes. 

His encouraging words were a catalyst for my lifelong interest in weather and climate and its importance for geography. 

Now that I am a PGCE Geography tutor myself, Rex’s approach to observation and feedback is something I now do my best to emulate. ​

Updated November 2020

This came via an e-mail from Denys Brunsden, who was part of a quiz team in the 1993 GA Centenary event. More on that nearer the time.

He mentioned that Rex had "been on Mastermind", which was news to me.

While searching for the 'Mastermind' connection, I discovered a lengthy blog post from Alan Parr: a maths teacher who knew Rex well. It was published in 2018.

This gave his memories of encounters with Rex Walford.

He had been inspired by Rex's work in designing games for the geography classroom, and created his own games as a result.

So simulation games became a huge influence on my professional life and the United game and many others became my major hobby commitment as well. None of these huge influences would have happened if I hadn’t discovered Rex Walford, and when I launched an amateur games magazine (which is still going today after 300 issues) I invited him to become involved. Rex was delighted to join us. He set up a team in the football game, enjoying the whimsicality of naming the goalkeeper after the milkman, and using the vicar as a ruthless defender. He joined lots more games and set to work devising a postal game about the aviatrix Amy Johnson.

He described meeting up with Rex for drinks in a pub in Cambridge.

He wrote and directed plays (we went to see one he wrote about Amy Johnson), played and recorded in revivals of English pre-war musical theatre songs, and was a Mastermind finalist on TV – indeed, he became a setter of specialist questions. Uniquely, he marked retirement by acquiring both a Harley–Davidson and a doctorate in theology.

I was also taken by his description of Ely on the day of Rex's memorial service in the Cathedral - a building I am now closely associated with through my work and have spent hundreds of hours in.

Ely is a small place, and by the middle of the day it was full of visitors and it was apparent that almost everyone we saw was going to the service. Though the town may be small, Ely Cathedral is a huge building – and it was full. There were so many aspects to Rex’s life that we were asked to introduce ourselves to those next to us and explain our connection to Rex.   Knowing that there were colleagues from his religious, educational, dramatic, and musical lives present, I diffidently introduced myself as the inventor of a postal football game Rex had enjoyed. The man in the next seat exploded with excitement; “Conington Thursday!”. He called to his wife a couple of seats away, “This is the chap who invented United!”

He also mentions some other of Rex's achievements:

I’m not the one who wrote a pantomime every year, or was a decent middle-distance runner, or who was a sports reporter for the local paper (which led to Rex playing semi-pro football – albeit only for 45 minutes until the missing player turned up). I’m not the one whose books went far beyond geography to include church history and guides to writing one-act plays, or who recorded CDs of 1930 English popular songs, or wrote plays for radio. 

Alan Parr's blog:
https://established1962.wordpress.com/2018/01/02/rex-walford/

Walford, Rex. “Geography in the National Curriculum of England and Wales: Rise and Fall?” The Geographical Journal, vol. 161, no. 2, 1995, pp. 192–198. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3059975. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Memories from Chris Kington and Margaret Robertson at the IGU in this special newletter from 2011 event.

https://www.igu-cge.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/IGU-CGE-Newsletter-No7-April-2011.pdf

Here's part of Margaret's memories from the above link - worth reading the whole document.

And on his radio plays:

A Dorothy L. Sayer fan, Rex wrote a 'one woman' play about her life which he took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1985 with the Head of Department's secretary, Miriam Rundle, as Dorothy. He also produced a theater performance of her radio play 'The Man Born to be King' as well as a dramatization of 'Murder must Advertise'. Since retirement, Rex expanded his life-time interest in theater as a co-founder of Cameo Theater Company, and at his death was a Council member of the Guild of Drama Adjudicators and Chair of the Cambridge Drama Festival. He regularly worked with soprano Gabrielle Bell in presenting programs and workshops about musical theater, and frequently led courses for the University Institute of Continuing Education on music, theater and film.

A tweet:

So lovely to hear Rex Walford mentioned in the @The_GA ‘s #GAeConf20 Presidential address by Gill Miller. Such an iconic address from him in 1984. And here is one of my favourite snippets as the granddaughter of a Yorkshire miner. pic.twitter.com/pzNhmSVxXh

— Becki Quigley🌏 (@QuigleyBecki) April 18, 2020

Updated August 2022 

I found a lot of images in the GA Archive in August 2022.

They included an interview when he became the first President of COBRIG - the Council of British Geography which I attended, representing the GA.

Updated August 2023

An RGS obituary with a lovely image.

https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2011.00409.x

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/89839947 - your chance to own the Land Use Survey book by Rex

A play Rex wrote. and some he directed.

Thought for the Day

 From Bill Mead's 'Towards a Commonplace Geography'

"Geography furnishes entertainment for the young and gay and is a pleasing companion for the old and studious... [it] excites the admiration, interests the passions, entertains the fancy, eradicates prejudice and enlarges the faculties of the soul."

From the Introduction to G A Baldwyn's 'System of Geography' (dated 1797)

1977: New Officers and posts - updated post

Updated October 2020

In 1977, there were big changes afoot at the GA with changes in membership and in the nomination of officers and branch representatives on the GA's council.
This introduced the current system (due to end in a couple of weeks) where a Senior and Junior Vice President of the GA was nominated and elected.
There were also a series of other posts created, and quickly filled.

The Honorary Librarian post was changed to become Library and Information Officer for example. There were also terms added for the length that someone could occupy these posts.

Reference
“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 62, no. 1, 1977, pp. 49–54. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41415171. Accessed 16 Aug. 2020.




Daugherty, R., Lewis, G., & Mills, D. (1978). The Geographical Association. Geography, 63(2), 126-137. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40568896

Updated 12th October 2020

As seen above, Richard Daugherty was involved in writing the Annual Report of 1977, when he was heavily involved with the GA.

He has very kindly been sending detailed updates to a number of posts on the blog as I got in touch with him earlier in the month.

Here is his update on these new posts, which contain useful additional constitutional detail on this phase of the GA's development.

There were two radical developments in the Association's activities in the mid 1970s both of which, in their very different ways, would have significant impacts on the GA's responsiveness to change in subsequent years. 

One of those developments, publication of 'Teaching Geography' from April 1975, has been well documented and is still central to the GA's work to this day. The other major change, a new constitution for the Association, was just as important but most members would have been unaware of it. 

As Bill Balchin's Centenary History of the GA has recorded (see page 60), the process of change had been initiated in 1973 with the formation of a committee to review the Association's aims and functions. After several years of detailed discussions the new constitution was eventually introduced in 1977. 

The 1977 Annual Report, quoted here, suggests that change would only be justified if it created a service that was both 'more responsive to members' and brought about 'more effective involvement nationally and internationally'. 

I was not a member of the committee drawing up the new constitution but I was, as a Joint Honorary Secretary whose term of office straddled the old and new constitutions, very much involved in implementing it. So in what ways did the Association become more responsive and more effective? 

The three new standing committees - Education, Publications & Communications, Finance & General Purposes - were each remitted to shape GA policy in their respective areas and to make recommendations to Council. From 1977 there would be much fuller discussions than hitherto about policy and strategy. 

To take just one example, the Association's more extensive range of publications from the 1980s on emerged from those discussions, led by the newly created role of Publications Officer (first Rex Beddis, followed by David Boardman). 

The change to an Education Standing Committee came just in time for the GA to become better able to respond, speedily and effectively, to the national debates in England over the decade that followed Prime Minister Callaghan's Ruskin College speech in 1976. Each time a new set of curriculum proposals emerged the Education Standing Committee, chaired initially by Rex Walford and with myself as its secretary, would frame a response. More broadly, the 1977 constitution also ensured that the holding of any of the Association's honorary offices should be time limited to a maximum of six years (except for trustees). 

As Balchin has reported, this brought to an end 'a tradition of individual lifelong service to the Association' and replaced it with 'a relatively rapid turnover of officers to ensure a continued flow of new ideas and prevent any incipient stagnation'. 

Constitutions can be mind numbingly boring documents but they do matter. I have so far not been able to find a record of the members of the 'Organisation and Development Committee' (chaired by Denys Brunsden?) who must have spent many hours shaping and framing that new constitution. But their contribution to the Association's vigorous health in the late 1970s and beyond should not be underestimated.

I shall perhaps try to find out from Denys who was on that committee.

And I have also noted the change to more frequent turnover, rather than the (almost literally life long) service of people such as H J Fleure and others...

1980s: A Case for Geography

Updated October 2020

Keith Joseph was the Secretary of State for Education when this document was created. It was a response to comments that he had made at the GA Conference 1985 and was a defence of the subject to his successor (as it turned out). The defence was collated by Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns.

References
Hansard
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1989/may/05/geography

A working party was set up and its membership is referred to here

• Mrs. Kay Edwards—Head of Geography, Penglais Comprehensive School, Aberystwyth
• Mr. Richard Lethbridge—Former chairman, Tower Steel (Holdings) plc, now a branch secretary of the Country Landowners' Association
• Mrs. Wendy Morgan—Recently retired headmistress of Elmsett Primary School, Suffolk
• Dr. Keith Paterson—Senior Lecturer in Geography, Liverpool Institute of Higher Education
• Mrs. Eleanor Rawling—National Co-ordinator, Geography Schools and Industry Project
• Mr. Michael Storm—Staff Inspector for Geography and Environmental Studies, Inner London Education Authority
• Mrs. Rachel Thomas—Member of the Countryside Commission and Exmoor National Park Committee
• Mr. Rex Walford—Lecturer in Geography and Education, University of Cambridge

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40571306.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Also published by the GA as a separate publication once it had been delivered.

Bailey, Patrick, and Tony Binns. “A Case for Geography: A Response to Sir Keith Joseph.” Geography, vol. 72, no. 4, 1987, pp. 327–331. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571306. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.

More to come on this nearer the time.

343 Fulwood Road - memories wanted

Updated January 2021

Some memories of Fulwood Road from former President Sheila Jones. For some years, the GA HQ was based at a house on 343 Fulwood Road.

"It would have been a lovely family home. In the front there was parking space for 2/3 cars. On the ground floor was a sitting room and smaller room, which was used as an office. A winding staircase, beside which were some paintings of past Presidents (I wonder what happened to them? I wonder whether they are at Solly St.). The planned photos never happened!

On the first floor was a larger room, I suppose a wall had been knocked down, where the meetings of the council took place annually in Autumn. There was also a bathroom on this floor.

The library was in the basement, and the garden, mainly lawn, was quite large."

Any other memories, and images of Fulwood Road welcome... Thanks to some former GA Presidents for some memories which shall be added to later posts.

Solly Street

When I first went to Solly Street there was a view up the valley towards the Peak District and the Ski village. Over the years, the student flats started to go up in this part of the city, and now there is no view, and several of the roads have changed. This view is no more...

Image: Wendy North - shared on Flickr

It would be lovely to have memories of visits to Solly Street from those who have visited over the years. It was a place I called 'work' for three years, and one downside of the current situation is that I have been unable to visit, and particularly to visit the archive which I think has plenty more of interest for this blog...

1982: Huddersfield Polytechnic

In 1982, when Dick Lawton was GA President (as blogged last week), I received my 'A' level results and they were good enough to do a degree in Geography. I gained good enough grades for a place at Lancaster University, but went for a Polytechnic course as it was more practical, and also had the advantage of being close enough to home that I could head back home on the train. I started my undergraduate studies in Geography at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1982. 

Huddersfield Polytechnic had an excellent course, which included a great deal of fieldwork and practical exercises. We went on a fieldtrip to France where we explored limestone landscapes around Besancon, and down to Somerset, where Tim Burt had his tensiometers, and Slapton as well (where my colleague Claire later worked for the FSC). We spent time on Saddleworth Moor exploring landslides, in the labs with Tony Vann exploring soil strength, drawing maps with Rotring pens, programming computers with punch cards and batch processing, and enjoying pints of Theakstons Old Peculier for 50p in the union bar, and peppery meat and potato pies and pancake rolls from the Mei Wah. Compared to the contact time of my own children in their current degrees, we had lectures five days a week and plenty of fieldwork as well.

Images here taken from Huddersfield Alumni Facebook group. There are hundreds of excellent images shared on this group page. I lived up on the top of the hill shown in the middle of the photograph where there is a road heading up to the skyline. Castle Hill is shown top left, with the silhouette of the tower and the pub (now demolished). The mill chimneys top right were just along from where I lived, and I walked over there some days for cracking fish and chips.

My tutor was Tim Burt, who left part of the way through my course for a job at Cambridge University before heading for Durham University. More on Tim Burt nearer the present day, as he's been an inspiration for many years, and is closely linked with the FSC. I did a dissertation on stream ordering methods (the Parkinson method didn't catch on sadly) and spent weeks up in the Peak District up the Snake Pass in great heat measuring stream networks.

David Butcher took over from Tim Burt, and was another wonderful lecturer specialising in water. I specialised in the physical geography topics.

Other lecturers I remember from the course:

Alan Pitkethly (a legend who died well before his time), John Fernie (energy), Jim Wrathall (already featured on this blog - agriculture specialist), Derek Reeve (early exponent of GIS and computer mapping), Lance Tufnell (climate change and glaciation - almost went that way for my dissertation).

I made some lifelong friends and memories, with the Bent St. boys and time at Peckforton Castle amongst them. I remember winters with many snowy days, and a final year at the Ashenhurst halls of residence.

Any other Huddersfield alumni?