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.