Coming to the end of my Presidency

It's the final day of my GA Presidency today. 

An August summary will be posted later today on the GA Presidents blog, showing the sort of things I got up to this month working in the role.

The year has gone very quickly and it has been a tremendous privilege to serve as the 106th President of the Geographical Association.

I would like to thank anyone who has done everything for the GA during the year, and who I've worked with on different events.

Particular thanks to Alan Kinder and all the team at Solly Street, particularly Isabel Richardson and Becky Kitchen who coordinated the GA Conference this year. It's a small team that very much punches above its weight.

Thanks to everyone who serves on a GA committee or special interest group or supports the work of a GA Branch. Thanks also to those on a number of working groups whose work will appear during the tenure of the next President - there are continual tweaks happening which are often hidden away until their impact can be seen.

Thanks to all involved in creating the GA's publications and journals. I've been able to contribute to three out of the four journals this year, writing a number of articles. I've written for other journals as well, and also for the GEO website.

Thanks to all those who heard me speak at events in a number of countries and online, or invited me to speak at their event - I was able to visit a wide range of locations (although not as many as I might have done before the pandemic).

Thanks to Paula Richardson for instigating and developing the support for the GA's National Fieldwork Week along with me, and some other colleagues. I hope this becomes an annual event.

Special thanks to all the team at the GA Conference 2022 which ensured that we got 'back in the room' - here they are pictured at the end of the final day when the delegates were all heading home happy. Plans are already underway for the GA Conference 2023.

Thanks also to everyone who presented at the conference and put themselves forward, and also to anyone who came along whether in person or virtually. 

It's so important for the GA's identity and for the support we offer to colleagues.

If you'd like to be part of the conference in 2023, you really need to get your proposal in within the next 24 hours or so.

Thanks to Susan Pike and Alastair Owens - the other members of the Governance Working Group - along with Olwen Lintern-Smyth and Bob Digby, plus members of the GA's Education Group.

Thanks also to the Governing Body - pictured here in June 2022 at Queen Mary University of London. Since then, we have had two people leave the group, who have been replaced by some new Governors. Thanks to Tariq Jazeel and Susan Pike who have stepped down. I have one more year, and therefore three more meetings as Past President, and then I will leave GB too.

Thanks to the geography department at King's Ely, who turned out in force to attend the conference, and are pictured below (just Kathryn missing) - we have said goodbye to Seb and Alex at the end of the year, and will be welcoming Barry (and Emma back from maternity leave) next week.

Thanks also to John Attwater, Richard Whymark and other King's Ely SLT who kindly cut me a bit of timetable slack during the year. Thanks also to all King's Ely Junior staff who covered for me in my absence.

I will be maintaining my GA Presidents Blog for the foreseeable future. 

There's plenty more to discover still about the work of the GA since 1893.

And finally thanks most of all go to my family: Sally, Ella and Sam for all their support through the year, and in the previous years that I've disappeared on GA business.

Over to you Alastair from tomorrow, when a biography will be added to the GA Presidents blog.

From the archive: Centenary Celebrations 1993

I visited the GA Archive in Solly Street two weeks ago.

I came across some pictures from the GA's Centenary celebrations.

There were some of the Centenary dinner held at Keble College, Oxford and others of the visit by Princess Anne. 

Here's a few of the GA Council meeting in November 1993 when the centenary was celebrated, along with a special cake.

There are some familiar faces here, including the President at the time: Andrew Goudie with the cake.

If anyone spots someone in particular, please get in touch.

1999: Primary Membership

 

From the archive: J S Masterman in the Alps

I visited the archive in Solly Street last week and made some great discoveries.

I was able to access some letters from the personal collection of Hugh Robert Mill, received between 1893 and 1944. They were given to the GA in 2000 by Arthur Hunt, who received them from L J Jay's widow. 

L J Jay was a former GA librarian.

I came across a letter to Hugh Robert Mill from J S Masterman Esq. who was representing University College School at the first meeting of the GA in 1893.

As with several other early members, officers and Presidents of the GA, including Douglas Freshfield, they were involved with the Alpine Club.

This letter describes an ascent in the Alps. Masterman was staying in the Hotel Nesthorn in Lötschthal. This seems to have disappeared, as has the Schwarzegg Hut. This is in the area close to the Eiger and other classic peaks including the Jungfrau, which Masterman climbed. He also climbed the Finteraarhorn and the Schreckhorn - both impressive peaks with aretes and other glacial scenery. There is also description of glaciers and moraines.

Masterman climbing letter to HRM.pdf from GeoBlogs

The trip is not without issues, such as this problem on the way to Diablerets and Aigle.

The days before Gore Tex...

Centenary Royal patronage in 1993 - the Centenary year

In 1993, Princess Anne visited the GA's Centenary conference as a result of an invitation, which I came across when looking in the GA Archives earlier in the week. 

She was asked to be Patron of the GA's Centenary celebrations. I came across a number of original letters relating to this visit.

Here's the invitation to her, written by Simon Catling from the GA Archive - copyright with the GA as with all archive images, newspaper and journal extracts etc.

I also found the original version of the image below, which has been reproduced elsewhere.... I recognised Simon Catling on the right but not the other two gentlemen. 

It turns out that the person on the left in this image is Paul May, who was teaching at Wickersley Comprehensive School at the time. This was the school I went to (and left in 1982 to start my degree).

Here's the caption that I came across:

She is seen holding a copy of the GA's 'Teaching Geography' journal, and also a copy of W G V Balchin's Centenary volume, which has been a major source of information for many of the entries on this blog.

There was a report on the visit in the GA News. I came across a complete bound copy of all early issues of GA News.

Princess Anne spoke for 25 minutes, and pointed out the value of Geography in several different ways. 

Source:

Boardman, David, and Michael McPartland. “A Hundred Years of Geography Teaching Towards Centralisation: 1983—1993.” Teaching Geography, vol. 18, no. 4, 1993, pp. 159–63. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23754550. Accessed 19 Aug. 2022.

British Geography: 1918-1945

This book was edited by Robert Steel, who was GA President in 1973.

There are several chapters written by former GA Presidents, such as K C Edwards.

Click here to access a PDF of the book.

There is quite a bit here about the idea of regions: something tied to the work of Herbertson, Fleure and R J Unstead.

This includes terms such as 'stows' and 'tracts'.

The GA also had a committee on regions for a while. There is mention in this part of the book of Leonard Brooks, who also later became a GA President (and about whom I know relatively little), and also mentions the work of Eva Taylor, who I need to investigate in more detail I think.

From the archive: Lord Meston's Address in 1934

I visited the GA Archives in Solly Street earlier this week and made some good discoveries.

One of the things I discovered was from Lord James Scorgie Meston, who was President in 1934.

Lord Meston's Address to a GA group in Glasgow was published in the Scottish Educational Journal in 1934.

Here is the address, in two pages.

There are a few interesting sections - this one shows how what might be seen as powerful knowledge dates...

What was the question of Memel? 

I had to look it up and discovered a link with the League of Nations - another institution that the GA has close links with.

Professor Eva G R Taylor

Updated August 2023

Eva Taylor was the first woman to hold a Chair in Geography in the UK: at Birkbeck.

Eva G R Taylor worked with R J Unstead on work on regions and within the Birkbeck Geography department.

She was a ground-breaking female geographer and historian.

Regional geography was a key idea in geography for many decades, even through to the 1980s when I started my teaching career.

Source:

British Geography, edited by Robert Steel. (PDF download)

PROFESSOR Eva G. R. Taylor, an Honorary Member of the Institute since 1954, died in Wokingham on 5 July 1966, aged 85. She was a Fellow of Birkbeck College and Victoria Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society. From 1930 to 1934 she was Professor and Head of the Department of Geography in the University of London, and in 1944 became Professor Emeritus.

There are links here to a range of former GA Presidents and also A J Herbertson.

Image source:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/2F941C5513B80DB4D1C8F4BCEF0F6B57/S0373463300042946a.pdf/div-class-title-eva-g-r-taylor-div.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Germaine_Rimington_Taylor

According to this, the first woman to hold an academic chair of geography in the United Kingdom.

From the document above:

In a broadcast talk about town-planning, Professor Taylor once said that to plan a new town on the lines she was criticizing was like 'trying to stop Tommy growing by refusing to buy him a new pair of boots'. It was typical of her forthright use of English. 

Many people know and respect her as a geographer and historian, but to many she is endeared by her absolute mastery of language: no stylist in the prissy sense of the word, but a writer in whom two great literary virtues were eminently found. First, the absolute reflection of the writer in the words—so that her tone and personality come through so unmistakably that no other person could have written them. And secondly, so complete a certainty of what she had to say that the language she used took on a natural, unforced, direct form that gave it immense pungency and punch. 

That clarity of mind extended not simply to the construction of each sentence but to the whole plan of the essay or book—an essentially classical virtue even more admirable when found in a person who had a poor opinion of the exclusively classical—to put it in terms that are probably historically out of date and that would (God rest her) perhaps infuriate her, an Oxford rather than a Cambridge virtue. As a historian, Professor Taylor was constantly dealing with movements, inventions, discoveries, manifesting themselves in persons: and no matter which of her writings you turn to, you will find (and this is what gives her writing such ease and clarity) that she never wrote until she had a clear picture of the personality behind the person. There are no lay figures in her work. It is supreme craftsmanship, even supreme artistry. 

RENE HAGU

Updated August 2023

Obituary in Transactions of the IBG

“Eva Germaine Rimington Taylor.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, no. 45, 1968, pp. 181–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/621401. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

She was the President of Section E

She started out as a Chemistry Teacher

In 1905, while attending a vacation course in education at Oxford, she was introduced to geographical field studies. Early in 1906, she moved to a teaching post at a convent school in Oxford in order to complete her study for the Diploma in Education. In October of the same year, she became a student at the School of Geography and two years later obtained the Certificate of Regional Geography and the Diploma of Geography, both with a mark of distinction. 

From 1908 to 1910, she served as a private research assistant to A. J. Herbertson who 'considered her the most brilliant and able of the many women students trained under him at Oxford' (H. O. Beckit, in a testimonial dated 27 April 1916). 

She spent the years 1910 to 1916 writing school text-books and drafting wall-maps (in collaboration with J. F. Unstead whom she first met at Oxford in 1906); and in starting her family. From 1916 to 1918, she lectured in geography and in educational method at Clapham Training College for Teachers and at the Froebel Educational Institute. In 1920, she gave a course of lectures at Queen Mary College (then the East London College).

Also published in 'The Geographical Teacher' - 1916

Taylor, E. G. R. “THE FIRST STEPS IN GEOGRAPHY TEACHING.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 8, no. 4, 1916, pp. 224–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40554496. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

Worth a read.

Source:

Beaver, S. H. “Geography in the British Association for the Advancement of Science.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 148, no. 2, 1982, pp. 173–81. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/633769. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

Eva Taylor lectures were started in 1960.

The one described here was chaired by another former GA President: Michael Wise.

Of the speaker here he described his work during the war...

Wise, M. J., et al. “Planning and Geography in the Last Three Decades: Discussion.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 137, no. 3, 1971, pp. 330–38. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1797270. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

Further memories of Eva Taylor are very much welcome.

"Professor Eva Taylor of Birkbeck College London University, the foremost authority on Tudor geography, arranged a facsimile publication and provided commentary on Forty Plates from John Speed’s Pocket Atlas of 1627.

Professor Emeritus Taylor, 1879–1966, was the first female professor of geography in the U.K., published prolifically, and was also renowned for her unconventional use of a walking stick: 

An academia.edu bio describes how “she used to point it at students when asking a question, as well as using it to hail taxies or even to hook Professor Darby’s leg to join her taxi from a crowd of people waiting.”

“Her writings were characterized by the extensive use of original sources and documentary evidence and they were always a delight to read.” This included “her two monumental volumes of the mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (1954), and then those of Hanoverian England (1966)….”

Source: https://simanaitissays.com/2022/03/15/touring-tudor-england-with-professor-eva-taylor-and-google-maps/


And another biography here:

Taylor continued working well into her 80s, dying at Wokingham on July 5, 1966.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/taylor-eva-1879-1966

https://www.hakluyt.com/downloadable_files/Journal/DeClercqTaylor.pdf - an updated version of a lecture given in 2005. Mentions Bill Mead.

She was a partner of one of the Dunhills of tobacco fame it seems.

A Bill Mead mention of her lecturing at the GA Conference here (in 1946 just after WWII)

Another Eva Taylor lecture transcript:

https://www.davidbarrieauthor.org/blog/2022/5/5/sa7v7vbcfpleeb2datally3yqt5u23

R J Unstead

While in the GA Archive I came across the manuscript of an appreciation of the work of A J Herbertson: a legend from the very origins of the GA, handwritten by R J Unstead.

R J Unstead was a connection with the early days of the GA as well, having been a teacher who was influenced by hearing Halford Mackinder speak. He wrote about Herbertson, and that was featured in a 1955 issue of 'Geography'.

Source:

UNSTEAD, J. F. “A. J. Herbertson and His Work.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 343–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40565958. Accessed 19 Aug. 2022.

Here is the piece as it featured in 'Geography', in a special issue devoted to A J Herbertson.

Here is the manuscript:

He wrote a great many books which were published during the middle part of the 20th Century.

His obituary was published in 'Geography' in 1966, and written by Olive Garnett.

Source

Garnett, Olive. “JOHN FREDERICK UNSTEAD.” Geography, vol. 51, no. 2, 1966, pp. 151–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40566076. Accessed 19 Aug. 2022.

I lack an image of R J Unstead if anyone has any memories or is able to provide one from the 1960s.

From the archive - technology in 1934

I visited the GA archives in Solly Street earlier this week.

Here's an example of educational technology from 1934 from the pages of the Scottish Educational Journal.

From the archive: B B Dickinson letter from May 1893

Visited the archive in Solly Street earlier this week.

I was able to access some letters from the personal collection of Hugh Robert Mill, received between 1893 and 1944. They were given to the GA in 2000 by Arthur Hunt, who received them from L J Jay's widow. 

L J Jay was a former GA librarian.

They included a letter sent by B B Dickinson to Hugh Robert Mill, who seems to have been addressed as Mill, and which was sent just a week after the meeting where the GA was founded, explaining that the meeting had taken place.

B B Dickinson May 1893.pdf from GeoBlogs

There was also a set of facsimiles of early documents, including a list of attendees at the meeting where ideas for geography teaching were discussed.

There is a list of those who were unable to attend but who had showed an interest. As you can see, these were public school masters generally. The first thing that was discussed was the use of the optical lantern, and ideas were shared for effective use of lantern slides. 

This is linked with the Geographer's Gaze project which is coming soon to the GA website.

Your starter for ten

I mentioned in my blog entry for the late Rex Walford (President in 1984) that he had appeared on 'Mastermind'.

Thanks to the BBC's Genome site, I have tracked down one of his appearances - he was a high scoring loser and was therefore invited back to a 'semi-final' held in Swansea.

His specialist subject was 'The Life and Works of Charles Rennie Mackintosh'.

From 'The Gower', the magazine of the University College London school, I also discovered this information on his first round appearance:

Rex A. Walford (1945-52) appeared on 'Mastermind' on BBC1, his 20 chosen subject being "The Life and Travels of Amy Johnson". 

In the second part, general knowledge questions, had he known the name of the famous soldier who had recently died, (General Horrocks), and the correct location of the Gobi Desert, he would have won in a very high scoring contest.

Source:  https://www.ucs-digitalarchives.org.uk/Filename.ashx?tableName=ta_gower&columnName=filename&recordId=120

All together now:

A few bits of Belloc

Hilaire Belloc was GA President in 1915. He was a bit of an 'outsider' President.

While in Devon I found a second hand copy of one of his 'geographical' books: The Road. He was a great traveller and quite a few of his books are on the theme of travel, and this was one of the reasons he was asked to be President (you can read his own entry on this blog)

I was also reading a copy of Edward Thomas (a hero of mine's) excellent 'The South Country' last week in Devon and discovered that the title of the book was taken from a poem by Belloc of the same name, which starts with the lines: 

When I am living in the Midlands

That are sodden and unkind,

I light my lamp in the evening:
My work is left behind;
And the great hills of the South Country
Come back into my mind.

The great hills of the South Country
They stand along the sea;
And it's there walking in the high woods
That I could wish to be,
And the men that were boys when I was a boy
Walking along with me.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

GA Presidency Month 11: July 2022

July sees the end of the school term and the start of the summer holidays which are a particular focus for teachers.

For me, the month started with a flurry of activity and continued to be busy for most of it.

The first main event was the PTI Subject Enrichment Residential.

This is an annual event (now back after several years when it could not take place).

It is hosted by Cambridge University, and takes place at Downing College, which is close to the city centre, and runs across three days.

Claire Kyndt, my colleague also presented her ideas which were based on the Dear Data project: data visualisation.

This was followed by a trip to Parker's Piece to carry out some fieldwork. This included a range of options for collecting data or interacting with the place.

Interestingly, the area was occupied by the stalls, stage and other elements of a free weekend Mela event. This included an observation wheel which Claire and I went on for a good view of the area, across the city, and with a distant view of Ely Cathedral on the horizon. There was some good feedback from the delegates.

It was then down to Stansted to catch a flight to Madrid. Thanks to Claire for giving me a lift to the airport. Thanks also to Miguel-Angel for picking me up. 

I was there for 4 days to lead a course for the GI Pedagogy project. We were hosted by UNED.

The GI Pedagogy project had received an extension of four months from the British Council.

I've previously blogged about the nature of this project, and the one that predated it. I co-presented the introduction to the 3 day course, and multiplier event with my colleague Michaela Lindner Fally from Borg Obendorf school in Austria.

The training course at UNED took place on Monday to Wednesday.

We are grateful to the delegates who joined us from a number of countries. There were also quite a few online delegates.

Luc Zwartjes, one of my colleagues was leading quite a few of the sessions, and was then heading off to the ESRI User Conference in San Diego where he also presented our project to a good audience. 

GI Pedagogy presented at #Esri EDUC 2022 pic.twitter.com/WfgmDpc3hJ

— GI Pedagogy (@GIPedagogy) July 9, 2022

Final days of term then followed, which were also hot, and included the Powerhouse Games with John Willis and the team.

A Governance Working Group meeting also took place, where there were several important items to consider for next year. This is part of the strategy work which the President is involved in. It took place in London as a 'central' location for most of us.

There were also plenty of submissions to look at from the GA's two Quality Marks: Primary and Secondary. This has been part of my summer routine for over ten years now. There were plenty of entries, which is great to see.

The PGQM is the Primary Geography Quality Mark which schools can apply for. I have been moderating applications for some years now, and this year there were a growing number of schools as some had deferred 

I was involved in a Zoom meeting with a school which had opted to go straight to an application for Gold. This was a lovely chance to find out more about the way that a few individuals can make such an impact within a school.

The IGU Centenary Congress took place in Paris, following another related event in Rennes the week before.

The GA has been connected with the IGU for some time now, with the work of former GA Presidents such as L Dudley Stamp and Norman Graves.

Sadly, this coincided with a heatwave and unprecedented heat and my travel plans were thwarted at the last minute as trains were delayed and I missed the Eurostar, which it then turns out was delayed by over three hours and took about six hours to make the journey. The heat in Paris was a factor, along with vandalism of the power lines.

The return journey also looks like being problematic.

This was a bit of a disaster as I'd spent weeks working out my itinerary of various adventures around the IGU sessions that I was involved in, with some Georges Perec fieldwork to carry out.

The paper I'd worked on can be viewed and downloaded from ResearchGate.

It was great to see that our GI Pedagogy project was presented at the IGU however, and with a great turn out for the session.

We also had some unprecedented heat, so instead of suffering 40 degrees in Paris I was present to experience 40 degree heat in the UK instead, which led to fires destroying houses just 20 miles from where I live.

This map highlights the places that are forecast to be hotter than the UK on Tuesday.

It's about 1.2% of the planet's surface. pic.twitter.com/1CW6krIOtb

— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) July 16, 2022

There were other jobs to do this month:

• looking at applications to be added to the GA's list of consultants and checking the references and credentials
• working on ideas linked to the GA Conference 2023 and tweaking the format to reflect changing nature of CPD and the wishes of teachers
• further work linked to the Governing Body and following other strategy meetings - much of this work goes on behind the scenes and is not really public but is important
• contacting new trustees to welcome them to the Governing Body
• work on website developments - this is ongoing work
• continuing work on projects related to the GA's Strategy: Advocate, Connect and Empower.
• started the moderation of SGQM with a meeting of the moderation team. I've been involved with this since the start of the Award.
• some final work on the D3 ERASMUS project
• more work on the GI Pedagogy project.

I also had some good news towards the end of the month.

I have been successful in my application to receive a Fawcett Fellowship for 2022-23 from the UCL Department of Geography/Institute of Education.

This will involve me in some research and writing and offers a fund to pay for related expenses. My focus will be on the everyday and how it forms part of curriculum making.

I also met up with Denise Freeman, who will be GA President in 2023-24 to talk through some of the work that Presidents have to do.

The month ended with a long awaited holiday.

Topsham in Devon is a place which we have been visiting as a family for many years and we generally stay in the same place, which sits right on the River Exe. It was great to be back again.

Here's the Cobb at Lyme Regis:

The month ends with the usual Twitter stats, which show a busy month but one which had fewer tweets than usual - a pattern likely to be continued next week. 

This leaves just one month to go and then my year as President will be over all too quickly. 

I hope to pass on my experiences to future Presidents and I hope my Presidents blog project will be a legacy that I will add to when I get the chance to visit the GA Archives.

Images: Alan Parkinson, Sophie Wilson, Luc Zwartjes