Monday, 23 December 2024

Ronald Lampitt - 'geographer'

Back in 2020, Brendan Conway responded to a post on this blog which mentioned the wartime work of quite a few former Presidents, often in aerial photography interpretation, although this is not an area that has been researched in any detail. 

It finished with a mention for the artist and illustrator Ronald Lampitt.

It's also known that Ronald Lampitt, much admired by geographers and certainly one of my favourite artists, worked in this area of intelligence. His 'geographical eye' and recurring tendency to view almost everything he illustrated from above seems likely to have been strongly influenced by his wartime work, but perhaps also by working with geographers? 

I'd never been able to find out much about his role during the war until recently when I stumbled across reference to his work by the scientific military intelligence expert RV Jones in his book 'Most Secret War'. It seems that he was very close to the V-weapon investigations as well, so there would be a possibility that he worked with Linton at some point. I summarised the findings in this thread:


https://twitter.com/mildthing99/status/1256611375411073024

Lampitt was recruited by Albert Hugh Smith, who was clearly very close to RV Jones. He later went on to become Professor of English at UCL and acclaimed scholar of Scandinavian Studies and English placenames, so he clearly had geographical interests. Perhaps he had links with Bill Mead at UCL who was also a Scandinavian expert?


There are plenty of examples of Lampitt's illustrations on the Ladyburd Fly Away Home website and social media feeds.

https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/ronald-lampitt/

During the war he worked in Intelligence and although (perhaps inevitably) the nature of this work is unknown, it is possible that his wartime work helped develop his exceptional topographical accuracy and the ability to animate technical drawings into something visually rich and appealing.

The blog explores the wartime careers of quite a few post-war GA Presidents.

Mike Dempsey's blog post also shares his love of Lampitt and his work.

I can see that there is a potential book in unpicking the contributions made by several post-war Presidents, including Michael Wise, who was also President of the RGS, and an important post-war Geographer that many people will not be familar with.

Illustrations: Ronald Lampitt

Thursday, 19 December 2024

R H Kinvig

R H Kinvig is mentioned in a few documents referenced when I was searching for information on Michael Wise. He was connected with the University of Birmingham,. and also other presidents including Percy Roxby.




He served as President of the Institute of British Geographers in 1957.

He wrote a history of the Isle of Man.

The University of Birmingham still has a Kinvig Geographical Society.

https://www.kinvigsociety.co.uk/


Obituary, written by Michael Wise of whom he was a mentor, as he was for Harry Thorpe.

Wise, M. J. “Obituary: Professor R. H. Kinvig.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 135, no. 3, 1969, pp. 485–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1797428. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.

References

Saturday, 14 December 2024

GA / IoE seminar

On the 4th of Decemember, the Geographical Association and Institute of Education held a joint seminar exploring the geography curriculum in the light of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

I was invited to speak at the event on behalf of the RGS, but was unable to attend as I already had a previous engagement, so Catherine Souch kindly stepped in to give a summary of the work we had done on our submission to the call for evidence.


The seminar was chaired by Dr Alex Standish (IOE) with contributions from:

  • Helen Martin (Primary Head)
  • Hina Robinson (Head of Geography and GA President)
  • Steve Brace (Chief Executive at the GA)
  • Dr Catherine Souch (Head of Research and Higher Education RGS)
  • Eleanor Rawling (consultant in geographical education)

The discussion explores the current geography curriculum and its GCSE and A level specifications at a time of curriculum review, alongside the progression and set-backs of the geography curriculum since its introduction in the late 1980s. Eleanor Rawling spoke at the event and she has been involved in previous iterations of the National Curriculum and worked on the National Curriculum Framework for the GA.

A recording of the contributions and Q&A is available using this link - you will need to login to Zoom in order to see it. Thanks to the GA for sharing this.

https://ucl.zoom.us/rec/share/_UX_SqYZHp1EqnnyX2DMC2QRFLB4hrsoyEBXcR_It4w1GXOGVBveh-Jkae77HQIf.KnFHjvaxWjZEouf7

Passcode: D37Zw#@+

You can watch Catherine's contribution by fast-forwarding to 34'30". She sums up the work we did in ten key bullet points.

Saturday, 7 December 2024

GA Conference 2025 and GEO Live

Preparations are well underway for GA Conference 2025 and Hina Robinson's conference.

The programme is on the GA website.

Good to see what Emma Rawlings-Smith is giving the Rex Walford Lecture, and Anjana Khatwa the Public Lecture - talking about her forthcoming book.

A feature of the GA Conference for some years now is the chance for young people to attend as well. This is called GEO Live.

Details are below. Sign up on this page.


GEO Live: Future Changemakers will take place on Thursday 17 April 2025 at the GA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Oxford.

This programme, designed specially for students aged 14–18, will enthuse them about geography and its wide-ranging applications, enable them to think beyond school toward university and possible careers in geography.

Teachers can bring up to six students each to the GA Annual Conference on Thursday 17 April, where they will take part in their own programme of sessions, including workshops and special talks with young geographers, influencers and academics.

Places are free of charge and available to students of GA members only. One teacher must be booked to attend Conference as a delegate to secure the places.

To book a place for your students, and for any queries, please complete the form.

2024 Programme: Future changemakers

Thursday 17th April 2025

9.30–10.00: Registration

10.10: Attend keynote lecture

11.30–12.30: Introduction to the day housekeeping and introduction to being changemakers

Changemakers Part 1

Exploring our own identity – what personal lenses do we have on our world outlook?

12.30–1.00: Lunch on site (students bring their own lunch) & opportunity to talk to students studying geography at University

13.00–14.00 Changemakers part 2

Issues facing our world and opportunities to take action – focus on climate change

2.00–3.00: Changemakers part 3

Green jobs

3.00–3.30: Question Time – Opportunity for delegates to address questions to our Changemaker Panel

3.30 pm End

Norman Graves - a special milestone celebration

As part of my GA Presidential journey, I created a blog which features a biography of every President of the Geographical Association. The G...