BAAS Publication

It was only when I started reading about the range of GA Presidents who were involved with the British Association (for the Advancement of Science) Section Committees that I remembered a dog-eared publication I bought some time ago from a second hand bookshop in Norwich.

I can't see any names involved in its production that are also closely linked to the GA on this occasion. It includes a nice map of Norfolk though.

Fanny Copeland and the Le Play Society

I didn't know anything about Fanny Copeland until I came across this article while looking for something on the work of Laurence Dudley Stamp.

Special thanks to Richard Clarke for his work on this research.

Born in Ireland, raised in Scotland, she made her life as an adopted Slovene, having lived in a number of European countries.

In this capacity, she welcomed a field trip from members of the Le Play Society, which I have mentioned several times on the blog.

This section talks about Copeland's involvement:

She had invited George Ingle Finch, to lecture.

Finch was also an activist within the London Le Play House Organisation (LPHO).  

The LPHO was a key organisation in the development of inter-war British geography.  

It had been established in 1920 by a curious mix of geographers, sociologists and educationalists to take forward ‘regional studies’ using an interdisciplinary analytical framework based on the trilogy of ‘place’ (the natural environment, physical and biological), ‘work’ (the economy, and daily life of its people) and ‘folk’ (their community and social organisation).  

This approach was itself derived from the work of the 19th century French sociologist Frederick Le Play (who emphasised ‘family’ as the basic unit of society, rather than ‘folk’).  

The LPHO provided a home for several bodies, including student groups and a ‘foreign fieldwork committee’ whose emphasis on ‘human ecology’ during the late 1920s became increasingly at variance from that of the Sociological Society (another body within the LPHO which was championing the ‘professional’ disciplinary practice of academic sociology).  

The two bodies split in 1931, with the Sociological Society recasting itself as a professional institute - the Institute of Sociology - and the foreign fieldwork committee becoming the nucleus of a separate organisation, the Le Play Society (LPS), under its first President, Patrick Geddes.  Geddes died in 1932, shortly after the formation of the LPS and was succeeded as its President by Halford Mackinder. 

I'd been unaware of this earlier incarnation of the Le Play Society, or the close link with the IBG. I need to go back to some of my earlier sources perhaps.

The LPS (a precursor of the Institute of British Geographers) became a major influence on the development of geographical fieldwork between the two World Wars.  Its first ‘foreign study’ (in August 1932) led by Dudley Stamp was of Solčavsko, a then ‘remote’ Alpine valley system on the Slovene - Austrian border.

It resulted in some outputs:

Dudley Stamp (1933) 'Slovene Studies'

This review of the book mentions two other former GA Presidents:

"Halford Mackinder in his Foreword to Slovene Studies described it as ’an honestly made brick for the palace we are rearing.’ (in Stamp 1933)  The LPS subsequently held up the 1932 visit as a model of how regional studies should be carried out.  The Society's own (1935) guide to regional fieldwork describes it as 'An excellent example of regional survey by a Le Play Society group doing field work as a summer vacation course abroad'. (Barnard 1935: 114, 1948)  Thirty years later (after the LPS had been wound up) the visit was described by Beaver (1962: 236) as 'one of the best examples' of the LPS’s work.  Beaver did much within the Joint School of Geography at King’s College and LSE during the 1930s to promote fieldwork and his own interest in the Balkans were fostered by his leadership of several LPS ‘expeditions’ (Phillips and Turton 1975)."

At this point the British Association and Section E appear - something else which has appeared quite a few times on the blog.

And this is followed by two more references to former GA Presidents: Sir John Russell (President in 1960) and K C Edwards.

"In 1947, well before the Society’s eventual closure, its ‘student group’ had become a separate body (Turnock 1991), recasting itself as the ’Geographical Field Group’ (GFG) with K C Edwards, by now Head of Nottingham University’s Geography Department as its President.  The GFG as a body of ‘professional geographers’ regarded the LPS as elderly amateurs and too ‘sociological’; the emphasis on civics and the Le Play method was dropped (Merchant 2000)"

I now need to find out more about the Geographical Field Group (GFG).

References can be found in the bibliography of the article below.

Copeland lived a long life, full of mountains and connections, and she was described as a "buzzing fly" (hopefully in a positive way).

Clarke says of her:

"In Copeland’s own work one can find elements of the idealism of Patrick Geddes, the mysticism of Vaughan Cornish (especially in her writing on mountains) and the pragmatism of Dudley Stamp."

Hilda Ormsby crops up here too - I love all the connections and interconnections here. There is so much that could be done with this era and the work of GA Presidents...

Source:

Clarke, Richard (2011) "Fanny Copeland and the geographical imagination. Scottish Geographical Journal 127(3) ,pp.163-192

https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/8156/1/ClarkeAnteric_2011_FannyCopelandGeogImag_SGJ_Pre-Pub.pdf

Stamp, L. Dudley, ed. 1933. Slovene Studies: Being Studies Carried Out by Members of the Le Play Society in the Alpine Valleys of Slovenia (Yugoslavia). London: Le Play Society 

Edwards, K.C. 1932. Anglezi studirajo Slovenijo. Planinski vestnik, no. 10: 193-198

Beaver, Stanley H. 1962. The Le Play Society and Fieldwork. Geography 47: 225-240

A quote I got from here as well:

‘Geographical knowledge needs to be understood as something that is constituted through a range of embodied practices (such as travelling, seeing and recording).  

The ‘field’ is not some self-evident place, something ‘out there’ to be ‘discovered’ in an unproblematic sense, it is produced in the ideas and the recorded or remembered movements of geographical actors, created through their discourse and shared through the networks of academic (and amateur) exchange.’ 

(Stoddart and Adams, 2004)   

Stoddart, David R and William M Adams. 2004. Fieldwork and Unity in Geography. In Unifying geography: common heritage, shared future, ed. John A Matthews and David T Herbert, London: Routledge. 

Emyr Estyn Evans

From a piece on Emyr Estyn Evans.

"When Estyn Evans (EEE) completed his honours degree course in Geography and Anthropology with H. J. Fleure in 1925, Fleure's Department at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and P. M. Roxby's Department at the University of Liveipool were then the only two honours Geography Schools in the British Isles. Fleure had invited Sir John Linton Myres to act as external examiner. Myres realised that EEE had exceptional ability and suggested that he did his graduate work with him at New College, but EEE never got to Oxford - he was found to be suffering from tuberculosis and spent the next months in a sanatorium near Ironbridge. Fleure rescued him and arranged that he be looked after physically and mentally by R. M. Fleming's medical friend."

"Throughout the 1920s, the battle for recognition of Geography as a university discipline was being bitterly fought. Geography grew out of various university departments, some out of Geology and others out of History, thus there was diversity of input to the new schools. H. J. Fleure FRS had previously been Professor of Biology, and EEE found that the knowledge he acquired from his close contact with archaeologists over this period to be an extension of what he had learnt in Fleure's Department. He began to think like an archaeologist and to see man's development in a context of thousands of years. However, EEE always felt that he was a professional Geographer and archaeology was his relaxation - EEE was back at Aberystwyth, working under Fleure's supervision on geographical items for Encyclopaedia Brittanica."

"He founded a local branch of the Geograpbical Association shortly after his arrival. In 1917, after the sudden death of Professor Herbertson, Fleure took over the management of the Geographical Association which was then at a low ebb. He appointed R. M. Fleming as assistant secretary and under her management membership rose rapidly. The office remained at Aberystwyth until Fleure moved to Manchester in 1930. What was more natural than that a student who had grown up in the shadow of its head office and had been appointed to promote Geography teaching, should establish a branch in a new area? His objectives were to facilitate meetings between Geography teachers and perhaps to help raise the standard of their teaching and the quality of students entering the University. His aim was to promote the quality and status of his subject and not to glorify the state of Northern Ireland as Stout suggests."

"Stout says that EEE was 'Ireland's only professional geographer at this stage ' - this is not true. I do not know the position in the Republic. J. W. Darbyshire (an honours graduate of Liverpool University) had come to Belfast's Royal Academical Institution two years previously. Mr Murray lectured at Stranmillis Training College and there were geography teachers at Belfast's Royal Academy, Methodist College and other secondary schools and Thomas Dunne at the Technical College. After he had founded the local branch of the Geographical Association, teachers met monthly - there were lectures and excursions, and this kindled friendships and mutual support that became the strength of the Geography Department. 

In the early 1930s, EEE ran a series of popular Geography Summer Schools. During the first years EEE was laying the foundations of what became one of the largest and happiest departments in the University  it attracted students from Britain, Europe and overseas. He had to devise courses, compose and deliver lectures, supervise practical work, fight his corner at the University's Faculty and other meetings, all with no help - not even a lab assistant! In his foreword to the 1978 Jubilee Publication of the Geography Department, Eric Ashby (Lord Ashby of Brandon and Chancellor of Queen's) wrote of EEE: 'He had to establish the discipline of Geography against material resistances, such as shortage of cash and space, and psychological resistance. He succeeded also in mobilizing some of the expertise of the Department to tackle important social and economic problems in the community".

"At the end of the first year, in July 1929, he joined H. J.Fleure, R. M. Fleming, and other British geographers on the Llandovety Castle, and sailed with the British contingent to the British Association meeting in South Africa. He did not publish an account of the experience but later donated his diary notebook of the trip and his sketch book to the Royal Geographical Society. I have the letter the Society sent him expressing their thanks."

Source:

Evans, Gwyneth. “Emyr Estyn Evans.” Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 58, 1999, pp. 134–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20568235. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

If anyone has an image of Emyr that would be appreciated...

GA and Internationalism

From a PhD thesis, and discovered while searching for information on Richard Arman Gregory. It explores the work of the British Association Sections and Nunn's report on school geography in 1919, and the need to promote 'global citizenship' and internationalism / the League of Nations.

The TES in 1920

In order, then, to take a share in the general citizenship of the world thus forced upon humanity it is essential that a knowledge of the factors underlying life and its problems the wide world over should form a part, and an important part, of a sound education.

At this point, yet another former GA President appears: Cyril Norwood - early on it what was to become another illustrious career.

There is a great deal to unpick here. I am sure other PhD theses may have explored this period.

Source: PhD Thesis - University of Leeds - 1978 - Peter Michael Digby Collins

https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4621/1/uk_bl_ethos_574464.pdf

The British Association referred to here is the British Association for the Advancement of Sciences which has been around since 1831.

It has digital archives which I may well dig into if time and circumstances permit. Apparently I can have a 30 day free trial to delve into the papers that it contains as part of the Wiley Digital Archives service.

In 2009, BAAS became the British Science Association (BSA). The new association has expanded on the original mission of putting science at the center of society, culture and education, and is focused on increasing the number, range and diversity of people actively engaged with scientific studies, activities and developments.

British Association (BAAS) Section E (and L)

From a PhD thesis, and discovered while searching for information on Richard Arman Gregory. It has plenty about him here, as well as references to John Linton Myres, Halford MacKinder and others as part of his work with the British Association for Advancement of Sciences - founded in 1831.

Section E was Geography.

Chapter XII is particularly relevant for Geography, although there are over 150 references to the term.

It repeats something I've read elsewhere:

The Royal Geographical Society (founded in 1830), which together with the British Association had been instrumental in establishing geography at the ancient universities, set up the Geographical Association in 1893 to represent secondary school geography teachers. 

Which is not the case of course...

It describes the GA as acting as a "pressure group" for school geography.

Thec hairman of the Manchester branch of the Geographical Association, T. W. F. Parkinson was elected Secretary of the new Manchester Geographical Society (still in existence today)

In a conference in 1919, Parkinson delivered a speech where he emphasised Geography's links with Empire - not everyone agreed that focussing on this was a good idea:

C. B Fawcett said that geography's sphere of interest was the whole world, not the Empire.

The Prince of Wales also appears speaking up for Geography.

Another pair of former GA Presidents get a mention here: Halford MacKinder and Sir John Russell.

H.J. Fleure then pops up!

Various committees and Sections discussed and passed around the idea of a proper report into school geography. It ended up in the hands of T Percy Nunn.

He chaired a committee with the following members:

Respectively W.H. Barker, L. Brooks, H.J.Fleure, O.J.R. Howarth, H.J. Mackinder, J.L. Myres andJ.F. Unstead; G.H.J. Adlam, D. Berridge, C.E. Browne, Richard Gregory, E. Sharwood Smith, E.R. Thomas and Miss O. Wright.

One woman only.. and Richard Gregory was not listed as a geographer at the time...

Some very familiar names and almost all of them GA Presidents in their time - that seems to have been the route into the Presidency at that time.

Speaking at the end of the First World War

Source: PhD Thesis - University of Leeds - 1978 - Peter Michael Digby Collins

https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4621/1/uk_bl_ethos_574464.pdf

In 2009, BAAS became the British Science Association (BSA). The new association has expanded on the original mission of putting science at the center of society, culture and education, and is focused on increasing the number, range and diversity of people actively engaged with scientific studies, activities and developments.

Other reading:

Charles W. J. Withers, et al. “Geography’s Other Histories? Geography and Science in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831-c.1933.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 31, no. 4, 2006, pp. 433–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4639988. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

A great many former GA Presidents were involved here, and received grants from the BAAS.

See the Grants page in the article above for some examples...

Here's an extract from the table:

For more on the BAAS I referred to a paper by Stanley Henry Beaver (also a former GA President with his own entry on the blog...)

Section E was set up in 1851.

Early meetings are described here:

There was a close link with exploration and travel...

Geographical education then emerged as a new facet of the work of Section E, again thanks to former GA Presidents:

In 1885, Scott Keltie, who had been appointed Inspector of geographical education' by the RGS in the previous year, spoke on 'Geographical education'; he criticized heavily the very unsatisfactory position of the subject, which 'scarcely counts at all as a subject of education', largely owing to overcrowded school curricula and the ignorance of teachers, an ignorance that was hardly surprising in view of the absence of the subject from universities. 

In 1887, the Section Presidential Address, by Col. Sir Charles Warren, was on 'The teaching of geography'. He defined the subject as 'all that knowledge of common things connected with the surface of the earth, including the seas and the atmosphere, which it necessary for every human being to be acquainted with in order that progress in other knowledge may be acquired and acquaintance with the world be made which will fit man for life in any capacity'. 

He stressed the need 'to train the minds of youth in the power of observation', and in regretting the absence of geography from the public schools, emphasized the importance of geographical knowledge to government servants. 

At the same meeting, H. J. Mackinder, a young Oxford University Extension lecturer, was speaking on 'Geography at the universities', and J. J. Cardwell on 'A natural method of teaching geography'. Mackinder was about to take up his appointment as Reader at Oxford; he referred to the necessity to teach physiography, because the schools did not do it; but, he went on, 'physiography is not geography; it lacks the topography, which is the essential element in geography'. 

This paper is packed with former GA Presidents.

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.

Keltie, Mill and de Rougemont and the Australian affair

A find in the GA archives from the papers of Hugh Robert Mill - correspondence with Leonard Huxley. It seems he and John Scott Keltie were drawn into a strange affair involving an apparent trip made to Australia which was reported in a magazine.

This website provides a little more detail on the controversy, which included an apparent sport called turtle riding.

De Rougemont’s story begins with his birth as Henri Louis Grin, in Switzerland in 1847. In 1875 Grin came to Australia where he bought the pearling cutter, Ada. The vessel was reported missing in 1877 and the wreck discovered several months later near Cooktown. But what had happened to Ada’s master? Grin’s story of survival was incredible: he made claims to have sailed 3000 miles as the sole survivor of an attack by Aborigines at Lacrosse Island.

After this incident Grin moved regularly, changing jobs and identities. He married and then deserted his wife, Eliza. He worked as a dishwasher, waiter and photographer. 

In New Zealand he resurfaced as a spiritualist before arriving in England in 1898. 

Emerging now as Louis de Rougemont, Grin reinvented himself and his story to a fascinated public. The Adventures of Louis de Rougemont as Told by Himself was published in 1899 and contained incredible tales of his adventures as a castaway in North-West and Central Australia.

De Rougemont’s book was an instant sensation – and caused a huge uproar. He began touring and giving lectures to scientific and exploration societies such as the British Association for the Advancement of Science where he was greeted with fascination and, of course, disbelief. 

De Rougemont refused to demonstrate the Aboriginal language skills he professed to have learnt and could not specify on a map where his adventures had taken place. Among the stories so vividly described in his book were tales of single-handedly fighting alligators, the devoted deeds of his Aboriginal wife Yamba and his horror of cannibal feasts. Of all of the fantastic stories included in de Rougemont’s ‘memoir’, however, the one that caused the biggest outcry by far was his claim to have ridden turtles – many believed this to be simply impossible.

There is more about him here. It sounds like a tale worth following up.

1960: Professor Arthur Austin Miller

Updated October 2023.

A(rthur) Austin Miller was the first GA President of the 1960s - an era of great change for the Association

As with other Presidents in the decades following the Second World War, he had a military background as well as his academic one, and he had served during the First World War, in the Royal Flying Corps (although the war ended when he had just passed his 18th birthday) so he waited for the Second World War to go flying again, when he again saw active service. I wonder how many GA Presidents did that.

He was originally intending to study chemical engineering (similar to David Leslie Linton - the President in 1964), but became a geologist instead initially.
He was inspired to do this partly by lectures from another influential former GA President: E. J. Garwood.

He worked at Reading University, where he was described as a "doyen of geographical climatology."

He was a key contributor to a conference session on the future of geography in schools as long back as 1945, which was chaired by another former President Sidney Wooldridge, showing a long-term connection with the GA. Wooldridge seems to have mentored quite a few people who went on to become GA President.

Miller also served on the GA's council for several years during the 1940s and held several roles, as did many GA Presidents during this time - in fact deep involvement in the GA is a prerequisite for being elected as GA President really.

Miller was also a founding member of the Institute of British Geographers in 1933, joining several other GA Presidents in that respect in their link with this body, which later merged with the RGS to form the current RGS-IBG, and later became President.
This article provides a great deal more information about his role in the IBG.

Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270 - source of the image above

Miller's IBG Presidential Address was given in 1948, and was on the dissection and analysis of maps.



He talks about the value of maps to geographers....


I liked the explanation that there were 24 lantern slides used to illustrate this lecture (although they weren't produced in Transactions sadly, although links to places where they had been published were included)

He also described the early days of geographers using the statistician's tools and introducing some numeracy.

Hugh Robert Mill is mentioned here too.



In 1947, he wrote an article for the GA's journal 'Geography' where he talked about the importance of exploring current affairs (an early mention for the idea of 'floating topicality' that Jeff Stanfield has talked about).
Here's a section from the article:

 Geography, Alive and Dead : the Teacher and the Text-book 

Although we pride ourselves that we have left behind the devastating dullness of the old geography it still happens sometimes that pupils, generally the duller and less imaginative among them, lose interest. And whose fault can this be but our own ? 

Often the root cause is too great a reliance on the text-book, which, of necessity, must attempt to reduce a complex scene to simplicity, order and tidiness ; life withers and the sap dries up in the process.
We read an account, in an advanced text-book, of the South Wales coalfield.

Within the few thousand words it can afford it is compelled to compress the geological structure, the types of coal, the output, the valley forms, the resultant settlement pattern, the communications, the industries, the exports and much more. These, of course, are very important, and constitute the minimum of firm knowledge that the pupil should retain. But what sort of a picture does it give of "man's" life in a pit village ?

It tells him nothing of the daily round, the long tramp or ride to the pithead, the sickening drop in the cage, the darkness until the eyes accustom to the dimness underground, the long dirty walk to the coal face, the distant rumble of the tub train approaching, the deafening bombardment of noise at the coal face by pneumatic picks and conveyor belt, the hewer stripped to the waist with the sweat trickling into his eyes and the, black smear of coal dust where he wipes it away with the back of his hand, the crouching in the darkness waiting for the shots to be fired, the anxious counting of the explosions, the danger of roof-falls and explosion of gas, the bravery and self-sacrifice of rescue parties, the tragedy and heroism of men and families in distress or disaster, and, up above, the mean rows of insanitary cottages, the open drains, the long sidings full of waiting trucks, the hiss of steam and the clang of shunting engines, the great wheels spinning as the cage rushes up or down the shaft, the unemployment, the pubs, the clubs, the pithead baths, the dispensaries, the tuberculosis, the silicosis, the black lungs, and skin ingrained with coal dust, the football, the choirs, the dogs, the Sunday afternoons, the fresh air and the sunshine or rain out on the windy hilltops only a mile away, the fouling of nature by "man."

These are the flesh and blood needed to clothe the stark skeleton of the text-book summary and these the teacher can and must supply.
But how ?
Partly by using his own knowledge to amplify and vivify the text with lively description ; partly by giving reading of a wide scope, and partly by appealing through the eye with visual aid.

Those comments all seem reasonable.

Miller's GA Presidential Address was given in 1960, on Climate and the Geomorphic Cycle.



In the GA Annual Report of 1960, he was thanked for his hard work and attention to business. 

Membership had passed 5000 during this time, and was continuing its upward course.

During this year, a former President Lord Nathan had been working on redrafting the constitution of the Association, and worked on some Statutes and Standing Orders. The Governing Body, on which the President now serves explores and updates these documents which underpin the running of the Association.

Miller published several papers, and wrote a book on Climatology, and others on Everyday Meteorology and one called 'The Skin of the Earth'.

In 1945, for example, he contributed to a debate about the future of Geography at the first post-war Annual Conference. This was reported in 'Geography' as shown below:

I came across a copy of A Austin Miller's book on 'Climatology' in an Oxfam bookshop in Norwich.

From his Obituary:



As with many other Presidents of the Geographical Association, there were also connections with the Royal Geographical Society.
Miller was awarded their Murchison Medal for this contributions to geography.

He was also the first Miller to be president, with the current President Gill Miller sharing the surname.

References
GA Annual Report 1960
Obituary
https://www.jstor.org/stable/621417?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Linton, David L. “Obituary: Emeritus Professor A. Austin Miller.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 134, no. 3, 1968, pp. 467–469. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1793043 - obituary by another former GA president.
Volume in his honour (scanned so lots of text errors, but readable - mentions of various other past Presidents early on, and foreword by L. Dudley Stamp - https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.111768/2015.111768.Essays-In-Geography-For-Austin-Miller_djvu.txt )

“GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION. Annual Conference Discussions on the Future for Geography.” Geography, vol. 30, no. 2, 1945, pp. 50–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563427

Miller, A. Austin. “THE GEOGRAPHER AND CURRENT AFFAIRS.” Geography, vol. 32, no. 2, 1947, pp. 77–83. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40546378

Miller, A. Austin. “The Dissection and Analysis of Maps: Presidential Address.” Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), no. 14, 1948, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/621257.

MILLER, A. AUSTIN. “Climate and the Geomorphic Cycle: Address to the Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 46, no. 3, 1961, pp. 185–197. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565260

Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270 - source of the image above

A copy of his book 'The Skin of the Earth' is shown below.



A fairly brief entry - let me know if you have further information on A Austin Miller.

Image: thanks to Professor Andrew Goudie (another former GA President) for sourcing the top image of Arthur Austin Miller for me, along with some other Presidents - much appreciated.

Update August 2021

Interesting tweet with a family connection added here, with his daughter Lindsey:

This XR rebel is Lindsey - daughter of Arthur Austin Miller, author of Climatology & geographer at Reading Uni @UniRdg_GES. She was delighted to hear meteorology is still going strong there, tho she wasn't aware of @ed_hawkins climate stripes.@XRebellionUK #ExtinctionRebellion pic.twitter.com/2eW134vyKy

— Dr Varyl Thorndycraft (@VarylT) October 9, 2019

Updated October 2023

He was linked with Section E of the British Association - a very important aspect of the development of geography which is a thread running through the careers of quite a few GA Presidents.

In I956 he became President of Section E of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a member of the Association's Committee until 1965.

It sounds like he would have been up for a pint...

He co-authored this article from 1930.

An interesting story about a paper of Miller's that got rejected from the journal of Irish Geography: read the full paper here

http://78.137.164.74/~geograph/irishgeography/v37-1/herries.pdf

He had a daughter called Shirley who graduated from New Hall college, Cambridge.

1923: Sir (Edward) John Russell DSc, FRS

Last updated September 2023

Sir John Russell was an agronomist, who worked in the field of agriculture and crop science at the Rothamsted ExperimentalStation. 


He was the Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station for over 30 years, between 1912 and 1943. He was the son of a Vicar, and born in Gloucestershire in 1872.

He spent a lot of time exploring issues relating to crop science, and agriculture. He had previously given an address at the GA Annual Meeting in 1921, so was known to the Association, and this was perhaps why he was in their thoughts when they needed to choose a new President. He published a great many books in his area of expertise.

It appears that he was not originally going to be the GA President. Lord Robert Cecil originally accepted the post. Sir George Adam Smith also accepted for 1923. I have added entries on these people also.

In Autumn 2021, this announcement went into 'The Geographical Teacher'

Source: “Editorial.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 11, no. 3, 1921, pp. 131–135. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555625. Accessed 11 Apr. 2021.

In his Presidential Address, he considered the Influence of Geographical Factors in the Agricultural Activities of a Population"

This included agricultural land of course.




The article describes how soil types influence the people who live in an area, and the changes that took place in agriculture from the start of the 19th century. He explores the various regions of the UK, looking at how farmers specialise to maximise production.
He visits an area I know well, where I used to live.

I like this connection. A spot of research also shows that current generations of George Thompson's family are still active as a potato farmer, perhaps still being "chipped and fried for the northern operative" (we have a lot chips up north). Some areas are still important for the same crops over 100 years later.
The report concludes with some very helpful images:


His address ends with a few important and relevant lines:

"Historians, I gather are coming to the conclusion that man is master of his destiny; geographers can safely say that he is rapidly becoming master of his environment."

The work of Rothamsted was very important as this article extract explains.
Source: http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/plantphysiol/19/3/391.full.pdf (PDF download)




He had a long career working in the field of soil science.


He died in 1965, aged 92 - another President to live to a ripe old age.

An obituary was published in 'Geography' in 1965, in an issue of the journal celebrating the centenary of A. J. Herbertson. It was written by H J Fleure and L Dudley Stamp (a great pair themselves).


It describes his work for the Association briefly.



He was described, in a small piece in 'Geography' as:

"A warm friend of the Association through many years"

At a time when food production and the food of the future is such an issue for the planet, it's good to know that GA Presidents have been at the forefront of work in this area for many decades.

Image credit from the top of the blog post - a good one).
Sir (Edward) John Russell
by Bassano Ltd
bromide print, 18 July 1936
NPG x84654
© National Portrait Gallery, London

References

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._John_Russell - a dapper chap in his youth...
Source of the image above

I edited this entry to add the fact that he had been the President of the GA, as I have with all the Presidents on this blog.

Fleure, H. J. “SIR E. JOHN RUSSELL, F.R.S. (1872-1965).” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 380–381. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565967. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020.
http://www.harpenden-history.org.uk/page_id__203.aspx
http://www.plantphysiol.org/content/plantphysiol/19/3/391.full.pdf

Books
Soil conditions and plant growth (1912, 1915, 1917, 1921)
Lessons on soil (1912)
The Fertility of the Soil (1913)
A student's book on soils and manures (1921)
The micro-organisms of the soil (1923)
Manuring for higher crop production (1916)

As always, if anyone has further information relating to this President, please get in touch. This is a relatively short entry.

Update

A good few additional elements from some recent discoveries.

His work in Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/150732a0

He increased the contacts of Rothamsted with agriculturists and farmers' organizations until the objects and work of the Station became as well known in the countryside as among men of science. Striking proof of this was given in 1934, when the experimental fields were threatened with building developments: a public appeal was issued for funds to purchase the farm, and the amount required, £35,000, was over-subscribed in less than two months.

This site has some very useful information.

A great image of Sir John. See half way down the post....

Russell was part of the renewed activity of Rothamsted - and was director for 31 years!

He had funds for a new building and library which he oversaw.

There is a link with World War I (as with much of the GA's work at this time...)

Many of Russell’s newly appointed staff had volunteered for the war, and some were killed in action. But the war underlined the need for improvements in British agriculture, and from 1918 funds became available for the expansion of the institute, with new departments and staff.

By the time Russell retired in 1943 there were 12 distinguished scientists who were Fellows of the Royal Society. Russell himself was a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Meanwhile Russell encouraged Edwin Gray, Field Superintendent, to record his reminiscences of life as an assistant worker over a long career at Rothamsted (Personal Reminiscences of Rothamsted Experimental Station, 1872-1922).

There is also some work that Russell carried out in the tropics which furthered his geographical credentials at the time.

Russell was also interested in improving agriculture in the colonies, and led the project to develop the Gezira area in Sudan for cotton and tropical crops. He travelled widely and funded overseas workers to come to Rothamsted. 

Much of his autobiography, “The Land Called Me” (Allen and Unwin, 1956) is devoted to his extension work overseas, from Africa and Palestine to India and Australia.

This is interesting to hear that he had an autobiography. I wonder whether it features any mention of his links with the Geographical Association?

In 1943 Rothamsted celebrated the centenary of the first experiments, and Sir John now 70, retired and handed over to William Gammie Ogg. The Russells retired to Oxford, but lived an active life until Sir John’s death in 1965.

The links with Section E of the British Association, and his Presidency are also significant.

I think he may also have been the President of the Le Play Society in 1960, based on an article linked to below:

Pre-publication version of Richard Clarke and Marija Anteric (2011) ‘Fanny Copeland and the Geographical Imagination’ Scottish Geographical Journal  Vol 127 No 3 pp 163 – 192 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14702541.2011.628451  

1919: Professor Grenville A J Cole, FSA

Updated September 2023

The president 101 years ago this year was a geologist, and a cyclist.

Grenville Arthur James Cole took over the Presidency of the Association just after the end of the First World War. He had been involved with the Association for some time, and there are several articles of his in the GA journal JSTOR archives.

This must have been a time of turmoil and change as soldiers returned to their previous life as teachers, and families were reunited, and the GA moved back into peace time. However, it was also a time of great growth in terms of numbers of new members and activity following years of semi-dormancy, and a desire to be creative and 'keep busy'.

Grenville Cole was a geologist by background and was apparently known as the "cycling geologist". You can perhaps guess why.

He undertook many cycling tours around continental Europe and Ireland. These trips were recounted in two early travel books. The Gypsy Road: a Journey from Krakow to Coblentz, published in 1894, which apparently provides a delightful account of a tour undertaken by him on a tricycle and his companion on a penny farthing, across what is now Poland, the Czech Republic, and eastern Germany.
Details here: https://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/287/1/135

In a later slim volume entitled 'As We Ride', co-authored with his wife, a number of expeditions to France and the Balkans are eloquently described. I am going to endeavour to get some copies of those books, certainly the first one at least.

Between 1902 and 1908, Cole organised a week-long geological excursion to various parts of Ireland for his students, and transport was by train and bicycle.

His links to the Geographical Association started at this time, and he became involved with their work in many ways, particularly in the area of Geology. He wrote a good many books on geology, as well as a rare guide to Dublin, which is going for £300 on eBay.

In 1919, his Presidential Address was called  “The Narrow Seas and the Arctic Route to Muscovy.” As is customary at the time (before the Bank Holiday arrived and the conference moved to Spring) it was held in the first week of the year.
Not surprisingly he started by talking about the geology of the seas around the country, and the role that they had played in shaping the country's history and destiny.

He also talked about the little-known expedition in the 1550s by Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, where they headed North into Muscovia, to try to find a great circle route over the Pole to Cathay, and "secure that route for the English."
It didn't end well for Willoughby, with his fate being told in his journals. They were found on the ship in 1554 after he and the crews of the Bona Esperanta and the Bona Confidentia had perished, ice bound in the Varzina River during the winter. Chancellor was separated in a storm off the Lofoten Islands and found safety in Norway. The adventures of Chancellor were recounted in the address, along with 'what happened next'. There were echoes in Willoughby's Arctic disappearance of the tale of 'Erebus' told so well most recently by Sir Michael Palin.

Cole was unwell in 1920 after his Presidency ended, but took up the post of President of the Irish Geographical Association
He delivered a series of Summer lectures entitled "Ireland the Outpost" and these were later turned into a book.

His Presidential Address to the Irish Association was published in 'The Geographical Teacher' in 1920. In this one, he suggested that every geography teacher should "receive a grant for travel... as the world at large is our laboratory"




This is a reminder that there are many national Geographical Associations, and I hope during my Presidency to connect with as many of these as possible.

Grenville Cole sadly died in 1924, relatively young compared to many of the Presidents.

References

http://sp.lyellcollection.org/content/287/1/135 - detail on Cole's career as the cycling geologist
Image copyright: Geological Society of London
Citation:
Grenville Arthur James Cole (1859–1924): the cycling geologist
P. N. Wyse Jackson
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 287, 135-147, 1 January 2007,https://doi.org/10.1144/SP287.11

Wyse Jackson, P.N. ‘Grenville Cole (1859 – 1924): cycling geologist’ Four centuries of geological travel: the search for knowledge on foot, bicycle, sledge and camel Wyse Jacskson, P.N., ed. London: The Geological Society, 2007: p143
Other images can be seen from this source, including some of the routes that Cole cycled

Presidential Address
Cole, Grenville A. J. “The Narrow Seas and the Arctic Route to Muscovy.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 10, no. 1, 1919, pp. 4–8. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555794.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40555643?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents - Irish connections outlined

Cole, G. A. J. “Presidential Address to the Irish Geographical Association.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 10, no. 6, 1920, pp. 276–279. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555713.

Books for sale on ABE Books: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=Grenville+Cole&tn=&kn=&isbn=

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenville_Cole - Wikipedia entry

I edited the Wikipedia entry to add the fact that he was the President of the Geographical Association. I shall do that for each President, as hardly any of their entries mentioned that before I started the blog.

Poetry about Cole by Michael McKimm: https://writtenintherocks.wordpress.com/2012/07/04/the-cycling-geologist/


As always, if anyone know any more information about Grenville Cole, please get in touch.

POSTSCRIPT

1919 was also the year that the GA looked to organise a memorial to Professor Herbertson, who was the subject of a previous post.
This was the Herbertson Memorial Lecture, and an endowment meeting the expenses of a lecture and printing.

Update - June 2019

An appreciation, published in 1924 in 'The Geographical Teacher'
“EDITORIAL.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 12, no. 5, 1924, pp. 329–332. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40556361.

Updated August 2020

While looking for something else, I came across a book called 'Geography and Education' exploring the development of fieldwork education.
It describes Grenville's attempts to bring the same sort of opportunities for fieldwork to Ireland that were being developed in the UK by the GA and other organisations.

Grenville gets a chapter almost to himself, alongside the efforts of John Scott Keltie.

It pulls in mentions for many other former GA Presidents along the way:

Born in London and with a solid background in geology he visited Ireland for the first time in 1884, the year Keltie undertook his eclectic survey on the state of geography education in England and Wales.

In 1890, Cole took a position in the Royal College of Science in Dublin. As a geologist he was a practical field worker, and he conducted many practical geological surveys in Ireland. In 1911, accompanied by Davis the celebrated American Geomorphologist, he undertook an expedition incorporating the Munster Blackwater River Valley. Davies, lecturer in Geography at Trinity College Dublin, said "They went there to see the sininge bend in the Blackwater described by Jukes in l862." Though working and residing in Dublin, Cole maintained a close contact with the Geographical Association in Britain.

His contribution to that organisation culminated in his election as its president in 1919. He worked in close harmony with the guiding intellectuals of the Association in England: Mackinder, Fleure, Roxby, Freshfield and Geddes.

Cole consequently spearheaded a movement to set up and establish an Irish version of the Geographical Association. 
The I.G.A. was affiliated with its British counterpart and many ideas and methods which had originated in England were introduced in Dublin by Cole. In 1921, he utilized the Mackinder and Herbertson Summer School idea to promote in-service courses for teachers.

Davies recorded the eleven-day summer school organised by the Irish Geographical Association in that year for geography teachers.

"The programme for that school looks surprisingly modern. There were lectures on landforms and scenery, maps and map reading, field work in biogeography, historical cartography, Ii Industry and power resources, and geographical modelling together with field-excursions to Howth, Dunsink Observatory, the Dublin and Wicklow mountains, Killiney and the Dublin Docks." Indeed the program looked surprisingly modern in the Irish context, yet, on a comparative note, those methods and activities had been integral parts of geography education at third level institutions in Britain for a decade or more. 

Cole simply transferred the techniques and experience to the Dublin Summer School.

Cole also campaigned for the inclusion of geography in the curriculum of the Universities. He realized that no improvements could come about in the schools unless teachers were properly trained in the new methods. He proposed a motion to that effect in 1923, at a meeting of the Irish Geographical Association, stating that "this meeting instructs the committee of the IGA to take steps to bring the need for higher geographical teaching in Ireland before the authorities responsible for the curriculum of courses for degrees in the several Irish Universities, and to urge the inclusion of Geography among the subjects that may be selected by undergraduates as the principal study of their fmal years for degrees both in science and the arts."

His work had only really begun, when he sadly died in 1924.

Source, where you can read the whole book:
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED331742.pdf

References

https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/abs/10.1144/SP287.11 - Lyell Collection

Updated August 2023

https://geolmaps.com/products/grenville-aj-cole-1935-the-geological-growth-of-europe-london-thornton-butterworth-3rd-impression-1st-published-in-1914

A guide to Geology Outdoors can still be purchased from Amazon.

Many illustrations from this book have been shared on Flickr. They can be downloaded.

Updated September 2023

A piece in the Irish Naturalist journal discovered by another sweep of JSTOR.

From 1924 - a new image of Cole.

Wright, W. B., and M. C. Wright. “Grenville Arthur James Cole, F.R.S.” The Irish Naturalist, vol. 33, no. 6, 1924, pp. 57–60. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25525353. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023. 

And some more description of his work.

It describes his travels and wider involvement, including with the British Association.

What's unusual in a piece like this is that the GA is mentioned as part of his work... he "took a keen interest" in the development of geography.

He also wrote poetry it seems, as did a few other Presidents.