Memories of Denys Brunsden

A piece of writing that I put together with the memories of Professor Denys Brunsden from Andrew Goudie and Anjana Khatwa was published in the Summer 2024 issue of GA Magazine.

Join the GA to see the full issue, and subscribe to the three other GA journals.

Check out some free samples here.

Image copyright: Geographical Association

RIP Professor Denys Brunsden

Via Anjana Khatwa on Instagram, I heard of the passing of Professor Denys Brunsden, GA President for 1986.

He did a great deal for the Association.

Condolences to Denys' friends and colleagues and particular to his family: Elizabeth, Martin and Judith.

Several people have already been sharing their memories of Denys. Thanks to Philip Anderson.

Updated end of July 2025

The BBC shared this story.

They point out that he was keeping busy with numerous projects.

More obituaries and messages:

https://www.geomorph.org/2024/10/obituary-for-professor-denys-brunsden-1936-2024-the-first-president-of-the-international-association-of-geomorphologists/  

From this document:

In 1956 he was enrolled as a geography student at King’s College of the University of London and had an opportunity to learn from Professor S.W. Wooldridge, one of the most eminent British geomorphologists of that time and a keen follower of the denudation chronology concept. No wonder, therefore, that in the early years of Denys’ research career issues of long-term landscape evolution were also strongly represented and his doctoral thesis was focused on the denudation chronology of Dartmoor. He will be associated with the King’s College for his entire academic career, until retirement.

".......after the funeral ceremony in Chideock in Dorset where he lived, his ashes were scattered onto the coastal landslide of Stonebarrow, going now slowly seaward. It is also necessary to mention the strong support Denys enjoyed throughout his life from his wife Elizabeth."

The Landslide Blog piece:

https://eos.org/thelandslideblog/professor-denys-brunsden

An online condolences book:

https://sendwishonline.com/en/business/group-card/Po3LRD7IsX0gre5JjxkUhwiEVHCF/board

1989 Conference: Young Worlds

 

Does anyone remember attending this conference? 

I had recently started a full time teaching post in King's Lynn and my HoD may well have attended this...

GA Centenary - mystery images

Another few images supplied by Richard Daugherty from the GA Centenary celebration in 1993.

Help required to identify...

The lady with Richard at the dinner.

The lady on the left sat on the bench with Sheila Jones, Richard and Pat Cleverley... three Presidents.

I think it may be a member of staff at Fulwood Road (at the time)...

Swansea Presidents

Richard Daugherty has provided a great deal of information on the more recent history of the GA.

Richard was GA President in 1989.

He recently sent me a few pictures that he found from the GA's Centenary event in 1993, which was held at the University of Oxford in the year when Andrew Goudie was President.

This one features four Presidents with a Swansea connection...

Bonus points if you can name (any of) them. I shall add their names in a few days' time...

Update

Left to right

Graham Humphrys

Richard Daugherty

Bill Balchin

Robert Steel

1993: Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie

Last updated August 2023

What other subject tells us so much about the great issues of our age – global change, natural and human?

Professor Andrew Goudie, University of Oxford.

Andrew Goudie is a geomorphologist, and a leading expert on drylands.

He has published a vast range of books, articles and other papers, and received numerous awards for his work. Andrew sent me a CV which included almost 30 pages worth of links to papers and other publications and contributions over the years.
I have been lucky enough to hear Andrew speak several times, and was on the same 'bill' as Andrew at an Oxford GA Branch conference some years ago. The most recent event we both attended was a 75th anniversary event for the Field Studies Council at the Linnean Society in London, where Andrew gave a presentation which referenced several former GA Presidents.

Much of this entry was made up of contributions from Andrew himself thanks to a questionnaire I sent round to all the GA Presidents I could.


Image: Andrew Goudie supplied - copyright rests with Andrew Goudie

I am grateful to Andrew for sending through a number of documents to help me with the creation of the blog, including images of Presidents I was having difficulty tracking down who have already been featured - I also found some additional images from other contemporary Presidents as the blog has reached nearer to the present day.

I also mentioned him to William Atkins, author of the amazing book on the deserts that he wrote a couple of years ago.

Thank you! I'm so pleased to hear that. I turned to Andrew Goudie's books constantly while writing it.

— William Atkins (@WillAtkins01) August 3, 2018

Andrew also got a mention from a later GA President Keith Grimwade, who went to Jesus College, Oxford. 

He told me: 

"the mid to late 70s was also an exciting time to be an Oxford geographer because having lost out to Cambridge and elsewhere in the quantitative revolution, it was just beginning to pull ahead with its work on the environment and climate, led by someone else who was to become a GA President, Andrew Goudie". 

Andrew also hosted the GA's Centenary celebrations as he was the President of the GA during the Centenary celebrations. I have already shared some of the images that were sent to me by Sheila Jones, who was at the event and passed through some excellent resources, including some photos of the celebration and futher details. They will be posted around the time of this post, so visit the blog to see more.

Andrew was born in 1945 in Cheltenham.

He was educated at Dean Close School (Cheltenham) and went on to Trinity Hall (Cambridge) to study geography (of course).

Qualifications:

B.A. Cambridge (1967) 

M.A. Cambridge (1971) 

M.A. Oxford (1971) 

Ph.D. Cambridge (1972) 

DSc. Oxford (2002)

These also included the highest grades, and distinctions.

Throughout his entire career he has worked as an Oxford academic, and is also the author of many books and papers on a range of topics, notably deserts, drylands and geomorphology.

He has held posts in a number of Oxford colleges including Master of St. Cross College and also Pro-Vice Chancellor. He has held visiting Professorships and posts in a number of other organisations as well. 

He was the first professional geographer to lead an Oxford college.

As with other former GA Presidents, he has a connection with the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.

He has advised numerous committees and other organisations as well.

He has been awarded a great many prestigious awards within the discipline of geography - these include:

• Cuthbert Peek Award of the Royal Geographical Society (1975) 
• Publications Award of the Geographical Society of Chicago (1983) 
• Founder’s Royal Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1991) 
• Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (1991) 
• Gold Medal, Charles University, Prague (1998) 
• Prix de l’Académie Royale de Belgique (2002)
• Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology (2009) - named after another former GA President David Leslie Linton.

In many ways, Andrew also has a close connection with many of the GA Presidents of the 1930s-60s in that he has been involved in a great deal of advisory work at the very highest level, which have connected him with many learned societies in addition to the GA, and international bodies as well.

These have included:

British Academy, BGRG, RGS-IBG, Royal Society.

He was also involved in the Action Plan for Geography.

Outside of the academic world, he is also involved in CPRE and a Trustee of the Jurassic Coast Trust - both of which connect him to the work of other former GA Presidents of course, particulary Denys Brunsden.

He has had Editorial roles on a number of publications, and spoken at events around the world. He was linked with this 2018 BBC World Service broadcast.

Andrew has also led expeditions to places such as the Karakoram, Kenya and Australia. I am sure I remember seeing him and/or Denys Brunsden speaking about it at Sheffield University as a 6th former.

When he became the GA President, Andrew was a high profile academic and Professor of Geography at Oxford University - the university associated with the GA's founding a century earlier of course.

Andrew told me:

"I was charged with helping with the Centenary celebrations. 

I have given huge numbers of lectures to GA branches over the years. 

I established, with Denys Brunsden, the Classic Landforms series. "

These books have been best sellers from the GA Shop for some decades and are still available to purchase even now. Here's the Dark Peak volume, which I used myself when teaching, along with the White Peak volume, and the one on the North Norfolk coast. They are many people's first experience of GA publications and activity and will be found on the shelves of many geography departments around the country I am sure.

Andrew had written numerous articles for GA journals, particularly 'Teaching Geography' where he has tried to educate teachers in the correct approach to teaching about drylands.

Andrew said:

"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."

This was an important factor in the decision to write my book 'Why Study Geography', which came out in October 2020.

Andrew's Presidential Lecture was called 'The Nature of Physical Geography: A View from the Drylands".

In it, Andrew talked about his career, and the importance of these often overlooked parts of the world, and some of the scholars who had come before and to whom he was indebted - a common theme for many Presidents.

Of landscapes, he said they are:

"one of the greatest gifts to human kind. Let us study them and therefore enjoy them and let us expose our students to great landscapes whether in Britain or overseas! Landscape has a great potential to stimulate interest in Geography in the young and in the lay person..."

He also referenced another former GA President: Sidney Wooldridge, speaking in 1949:

"By what right can we withhold a knowledge of how our terrestrial home is constructed, the meaning of its scenery and the patterns of its sky. The world contains not only factories, farms, railway sidings, market places etc but the blue hills on the skyline, the winding valleys which traverse them, russet bracken covered slopes and heather fells and the ever changing incident of long and varied coastlines."

He also predated the modern movement towards avoiding the use of the term "natural disasters". 

I have my No Natural Disasters badges and stickers.

He said:

"it is probably best no longer to use the term 'natural hazard' because many hazards are only quasi-natural"

Andrew has written on the theme of the divide between school and academic geography, and how this might be dealt with.

He also published a paper in The Canadian Geographer in 2016 on divisions between human and physical geography - another ongoing debate in the subject discipline.

Andrew remains as busy as ever.

I was interested to see that one of the PhD students that Andrew supervised was Rita Gardner, former Director of the Royal Geographical Society. Another was Nick Middleton, who has appeared on TV himself, talking about some of the world's extreme environments.

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. He lent me the letters that he had in reply and Andrew replied.

He says of his spark that it was:

"I was eight or nine and we had a family holiday that took us to Lyme Regis. I collected ammonites. I then got acute appendicitis and the minister at the Kirk in Cheltenham who gave me a book on fossils... When I was better I sought them out all over the Cotswolds."

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

References
Oxford University Staff Page - some details of Andrew's academic work.

Andrew provided me with a CV with hundreds of books, papers and other published output. Here are a few examples to jog your memory perhaps:

Why the Devil’s punchbowl dries up. Geographical Magazine 50(6), 381-386 (1978) (with M. J. Day) Chill winds over India. Geographical Magazine 411-416 (1979) 

Fearful landscape of the Karakoram. Geographical Magazine pp. 306-312 (1981) 

The disintegration of rock by mechanical processes. Teaching Geography 6, 176-179 (1981) 

Man, maker of landscapes. Geographical Magazine (1987)

If anyone has anything else to add about Andrew, and memories of his contributions to the GA, please get in touch.

Update March 2021

New Book Alert! The Queen of the Sciences: Geological Pioneers of the Jurassic Coast by Andrew Goudie and @CharmouthHCC Patron Denys Brunsden. Available now on our online shop: https://t.co/codaT1W1dg pic.twitter.com/lN3iGskiQr

— CharmouthHCC (@CharmouthHCC) March 30, 2021

Updated August 2023

Out in November 2022, in collaboration with Denys Brunsden. 

Details here from OUP.

1993 Centenary Celebration Weekend

This took place at Keble College, Oxford on the 2nd-4th of July 1993

Sheila Jones kindly send me a list of the delegates along with some hand-written comments to identify some of the names from her memory.

Andrew Goudie told me: 

The Centenary celebrations went off well and we had a fantastic, packed out, five course dinner in Keble College, attended by the Director of the RGS, the head of National Geographic (Gilbert Grosvenor) and the Secretary of State for Education (John Patten).

I have been awarded a Gilbert Grosvenor Medal as it happens :)

Here's the programme for the event.

If anyone has any memories of this event - perhaps you were there, or recognise any names then let me know.

I presume this is OK under GDPR as it took place 27 years ago and doesn't identify anyone's current location or details... Former GA Presidents are emboldened.

Miss H Arnold, York - schoolteacher

Mr A R Astles, London

Patrick Bailey, Leicester

Mrs. K M Balch, Eastbourne

Prof W G V Balchin, Ilkley

Mr R A C Barr, Northampton

Ms B L Beard, Loughborough

Mr. Trevor Bennetts, Eastleigh - HMI - more on Trevor in a separate blog post

Miss Sue Bermingham, Manchester - still very active

Ms L Beskeen, Bristol - a teacher, on the local GA Branch committee

Dr J A (Tony) Binns, Hove - Tony Binns, now based in New Zealand

Ms Rachel Bowles, London - another GA legend who will have her own blog post on the blog

Dr Mike Bradford, Manchester

Mrs K Broadbent, Oldham

Prof. D Brunsden, Bridport

Mrs. V P Bulbick, Bournemouth

Mr. D Burtenshaw, Bedhampton

Miss Margaret Caister, Islington - HMI

Miss J Campbell, Shewsbury

Mr. Simon Catling (& Mrs L Catling), Oxford 

Miss D Challis, Tetbury

Mr R Chapman, London

Mrs P A Clarke, York

Mr M J Clatworthy, Oxford

Miss Pat Cleverley, Bristol

Professor Alice Coleman, London

Mr Graham Corney, Oxford - https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Graham-Corney-81702509

Mr M Cribb, Hampton Hill

Mr Richard Daugherty, Swansea

Mr J Davey, Oxford

Mr Vic Dennison, Bristol

Mr A Dixon, Oxford

Miss C Donaldson, Brighton

Mr. Ralph Dunkley, Purley

Mr L H Elliott, London

Mrs J Elson, Exeter

Ms D Farmer, Wrexham

Mr M and Mrs. Marcia Foley, Rotherfield - Marcia Foley is a name from the past - see later...

Ms E and Miss J Frew, Manchester - Jennie Frew is still a Vice President of the Manchester GA Branch

https://www.geography.org.uk/GA-Manchester-Branch

Professor Andrew Goudie, Oxford - hosted the event

Mr P Gwilliam, Southend on Sea

Prof Peter Haggett, Bristol - a great supporter of the local branch

He appears in one of Sheila Jones' pictures.

Mr B Harris, London

Ms S M Harvey-George, Falmouth - found on LinkedIn - a geographer in Truro

Mrs A M Hayes, Oxford

Miss B E Hayward, London

Dr John Hemming, London - An IBG rep. Director of the RGS in due course.

Mr M and Mrs. E Hewitt, Bickley

Dr Gladys Hickman, Edinburgh - a great innovator according to Sheila Jones, and her own Education tutor who inspired her. Sadly died in 2006, and has her own post on this blog. An early school textbook author.

Dr Graham Humphrys (& Mrs. R), Swansea

Mrs J Janikoun, Bromley - Jan Janikoun - wrote a book for Primary Geography with Marcia Foley

Mr. R Jones and Mrs. E A Jones, Stone - Bob Jones, from the GA Staffordshire branch - he kindly put me up when I spoke at the branch about 10 years ago.

Miss Sheila Jones, Bristol

Mr. Chris Kington, Cambridge

Mr Jeremy Krause, Chester

Ms J. H. Lawley, Bury - a Headmistress who was 'always at conference'

Mr. R A Leake, Market Bosworth

Miss Julia Legge, Sheffield - involved with the GA as an administrator

Dr G E D Lewi, London

Mrs. Judith Mansell, Watford - former RGS Education Officer, and also involved with the GA as Trustee

Mr R A H Marshall, Manchester

Mr. Alan Marvell, Swindon - still heavily involved with the GA in the Post-16 committee

Mr Robert May, Cheltenham - GA Branch officer, has his own post on the blog

Professor Bill Mead, Aylesbury

Mr D C Money, Bedford - author who has been mentioned early on the blog, and had a fascinating life - a keen contributor to GA events.

Miss N Moon, Swindon

Mr. R B Ll Morgan, Repton

Mrs. Wendy Morgan, Ipswich

Mrs. S Morris, Croydon

Mr Mike Morrish, London

Mr Michael Naish (& Mrs. S), Bromley - Education tutor in London, and previously mentioned on the blog

Ms H. Niemann, Burgewdl, Germany - an international attendee; common at GA Conferences now, sometimes with the support of the GA's International SIG.

Mr M and Mrs M O' Leary, Nottingham

Mr Keith Orrell, Wakefield - very active, and has his own post on the blog

Professor Allan Patmore, North Ferriby, Hull

Mr M and Mrs. E Pearson, Preston

Miss J Pugh, Leicester

Mr A Powell, London

Mrs Eleanor Rawling (& Mr J Rawling), Oxford

Mr M K Reeves, Rolle, Swizerland

Mrs Margaret Roberts, Sheffield

Miss Rosemary L Robson, Eastbourne - She was chair of the Secondary School committee (on which I served for 14 years) and a very efficient one. She served a similar period to Sheila Jones, who sent me these notes. She feels that she should have been President, but was never selected by the hierarchy at the time.

Mr John Rolfe, Boreham Wood

Mr N Rosser, Malvern

Mrs E Sawicka, Solihull

Mr Neil Simmonds, Worksop - teacher

Mr D G Smith, Oxford

Miss M Smeaton, Worcester - lecturer

Miss Frances Soar - GA Staff

Mrs C Speak, Shaftesbury

Dr Derek Spooner, Hull

Professor Robert Steel, Swansea

Rev C H and Mrs. D Stephens, Nottingham

Mr Michael Storm, Reading

Mrs Andrea Tapsfield, Warwick - HMI and involved with the GA for many decades - still active now, and recently worked on the Mentoring section of the GA website - will have her own post on the blog.

Mr C C Taylor, Newcastle upon Tyne

Mr Rex Walford, Cambridge - and Mrs. Wendy Walford

Ms. J Webb, Melton Mowbray

Ms A Whipp, Llanbedr-y-Fro

Mrs D White, Bournemouth

Prof M Williams, Swansea

Mr D and Mrs. C Williams, Norwich

Professor Michael Wise, London - & Mrs. B Wise

Miss M B Woodward, Ramsgate

Mrs. G Wraith, Chesterfield

Mentioned here: she taught at Lady Manners School, Bakewell

“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 61, no. 4, 1976, pp. 263–271. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568595. Accessed 6 Dec. 2020.

Ms P Wilson, Bedford - very busy GA activist

Here are 2 photos from the many provided by Sheila Jones.

The first has an interior view of Keble College, Oxford.

I recognise several people there, including Patrick Bailey talking to Trevor Bennetts, Bob May and Gilbert Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society.

Another picture from Sheila is this one from the garden.

I recognise quite a few former GA Presidents there including Michael Bradford, Rex Walford, Simon Catling and Eleanor Rawling.

The lady in the blue dress in the middle of the photograph, with the brown handbag is Elizabeth Fleure, daughter of Professor H J Fleure - a link to the GA's origins a century earlier...

All memories and further details of any delegates that you recognise, such as names, jobs etc would be very welcome to help flesh out this post further.

Landshapes - Channel 4

Do any readers remember this series?

It involved two former GA Presidents: Denys Brunsden and Andrew Goudie, as well as Rita Gardner and David Jones.

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 involved Rita Gardner - former Director of the RGS-IBG. I also had the book for a while but it went to the second hand shop some time ago.

It was presented by Tim Preece I believe.

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.

Does anyone remember using this in their own teaching?

I was contacted by Mark Worthington in 2006 who wanted to copy my VHS copies onto DVD, and produced one for me as well. It's around somewhere, and will share some screenshots when I find it.