1963: Professor Kenneth Charles Edwards, CBE

Updated October 2023

Professor Kenneth Charles Edwards was an academic geographer, with a particular interest in fieldwork and  biogeography, who was closely associated with the University of Nottingham.

He was born in Hampshire in 1904, and went to Itchen College and the University of Southampton.

He started out at as an Assistant Lecturer in Geography, as far back as 1926 at the University of Nottingham, where he stayed until his retirement in 1970.

He was a Fellow of the RGS too. He was also President of the IBG in 1960 - another GA President to have been closely linked with that organisation.

He was appointed to the first Chair of Geography in the University of Nottingham in 1949 and held the post until his retirement in 1970.

His Presidential address was titled: "The importance of Biogeography" and was delivered at the London School of Economics.
He was the President in the year of my birth.
Image from Balchin Centenary volume.

From Robert Steel's obituary:


In his Presidential Address, he described the importance of this branch of the subject as connecting lots of others.


It was interesting to see the use of the Wallace line, developed by Alfred Russell Wallace was still used at the time, and featured in his talk.

A collection of essays in his honour was published in 1970.

He was the editor of 'Geography' for a period.

Edwards also contributed to the classic Collins illustrated series of regional geographies with a book on an area I know very well: 'The Peak District' - a book I am sure I have read before in that edition.

He also contributed pieces to the Royal Meteorological Society's journal.

He was the editor of "British Landscapes through Maps".

He worked in local planning as well, getting involved in planning decisions in the East Midlands. He helped set up the 'East Midland Geographer' journal, and was also active in the Le Play Society, which has been featured on the blog several times before.

He died in Beeston, Notts in 1982, apparently "peacefully in his sleep", which is a good a way as any to go.

An obituary was published in Geography in the same year, and Robert Steel also wrote about his life and work.



A memorial lecture was announced later that year too, as reported in 'Geography', as part of the Nottingham GA Branch. He gave more than 50 years of service to the GA Branch. I wonder whether this annual lecture is still part of the Nottingham GA Branch programme.


References

Professor Edwards' address can be read here:
EDWARDS, K. C. “The Importance of Biogeography.” Geography, vol. 49, no. 2, 1964, pp. 85–97. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565787

https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/qj.49705623708

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/geography/about/history.aspx

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Geographical-essays-honour-K-Edwards/dp/0900572159

Edwards, K. C. “THE NEW TOWNS OF BRITAIN.” Geography, vol. 49, no. 3, 1964, pp. 279–285. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40566379
Papers: https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/bbf12dfb-1e04-3f1e-a5ee-9592722edfc7

Obituary, written by another GA President Stanley Beaver:

Beaver, S. H. “Obituary: Professor K. C. EDWARDS CBE, MA, PhD FRGS (1904-1982).” Geography, vol. 67, no. 3, 1982, pp. 267–267. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570571

Steel, Robert W. “Kenneth Charles Edwards, 1904-1982.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 115–119. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622282. Accessed 4 Apr. 2020.
From the JISC archives, some details:

Kenneth Charles Edwards was born in Hampshire in 1904 and educated at Itchen Grammar School and University College Southampton. He joined University College Nottingham in 1926 to teach as an assistant lecturer in the department of geography and geology. When the department divided, Edwards became lecturer in charge of geography. He was promoted to a readership in 1939 and in 1948 was elected to the newly-independent University of Nottingham's first Chair of Geography. Beyond his subject responsibilities at the university, Edwards was also chairman of the University Club and the first Dean of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences.

Professor Edwards was keenly committed to the promotion of serious field studies as an important element of undergraduate study. He was for many years the chairman of the Le Play Society's Students' Group, before becoming president of its successor, the Geographical Field Group, after the war. He remained president until his death. He also held the presidency of the Nottingham branch of the Geographical Association. From 1937 to 1958, he was convenor of the Standing Conference of Heads of Geography Departments in British Universities.

His wide geographical knowledge of the East Midlands led to his being released on secondment between 1944 and 1946 as the Regional Research Officer for the newly-established Ministry of Town and Country Planning. In 1956, he launched The East Midlands Geographer and in 1966 he edited Nottingham and its region for the British Association's Nottingham annual meeting of that year. In 1967, Professor Edwards was nominated to the East Midlands Regional Economic Planning Council, and his services to planning and the region were recognised by a CBE in 1970.

As a result of pre-war field studies and doctoral research, Edwards became an authority on the geography of Luxembourg. This experience was used in wartime intelligence. He subsequently initiated and edited the National Atlas of Luxembourg, published in 1971. He was also familiar with Poland through field study and led the first official post-war delegation of university geographers there in 1959. Professor Edwards died in Beeston, Nottinghamshire on 7 May 1982.

Economic Planning Councils were established by the UK Government in 1964. They were responsible to the Department of Economic Affairs and replaced the regional boards operated by the Ministry of Production and then the Board of Trade. The East Midlands regional council was based in Nottingham and was active in economic planning and development in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. The council investigated a broad range of issues including new towns, sewage, rivers, and housing.
He was pictured in  Balchin's Centenary volume as shown at the top of the entry.

Articles in 'Geography'
Edwards, K. C. “CHANGING GEOGRAPHICAL PATTERNS IN LINCOLNSHIRE.” Geography, vol. 39, no. 2, 1954, pp. 78–90. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564570.

British Geography 1918-1945, Editted by Robert.W Steel - published in 1987.
Chapter 12 was by J A Patmore, where he gave a personal perspective on the period.
He described Kenneth Edwards as "a patient and courteous external examiner of a postgraduate thesis, always anxious to retain the link with the student".

Updated August 2021

He seems to have been an expert on the country of Luxembourg.

https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/bbf12dfb-1e04-3f1e-a5ee-9592722edfc7 

Updated July 2022

In 1970, a collection of essays in his honour was published by the University of Nottingham.

The foreword to this book turns out to have the best biography of him that I have found.

The book also describes a little about his time as President of the GA, where he helped "supervise the move to a new headquarters".

If anyone has further information about Professor Edwards please get in touch so I can add more detail to this post.

Updated August 2022

Professor Edwards delivered the 15th Herbertson Memorial Lecture in May 1973.

Updated October 2023

I am now researching the Geographical Research Group... that Edwards was closely connected with.

GA and RGS-IBG

This post makes a start at exploring some of the many connections between the GA and the RGS-IBG over the years.

At the AGM of the GA held in 1904, at the London School of Economics, there was a

Following the war, the RGS offered its premises to the GA for their use for meetings, as they had remained undamaged. These weren't the current premises on Exhibition Road, and Lowther Lodge, which is the iconic current 'home of Geography'.

Many GA Presidents were also President of the Royal Geographical Society (either before or after holding the GA Presidency), or held other posts such as Secretary or Librarian, or worked on the RGS Council.
Numerous GA Presidents were also Fellows of the RGS and remain so today.

The IBG also had strong connections, with GA Presidents, who were founder members of the IBG

I am sure in thefuture that the bonds between the Association and the Royal Society for geographers will remain strong. The changing world ahead of us demands no less.

References
“THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 2, no. 4, 1904, pp. 146–152. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40556219.

1915: The death of A.J. Herbertson

This entry describes someone who was never the President but, had he lived to the age of many other Presidents, would have certainly taken up that position at some point.

Last updated October 2023

Andrew John Herbertson was the Honorary Secretary of the GA from 1900-1915 and oversaw many changes and developments in the early years of the association.

Balchin, in his centenary history, describes the impact of the death of A.J Herbertson, and his wife on the Association, which came as a great shock to all. 

He died at the tragically young age of 49.

He was born in Galashiels in Scotland. In 1892 he went to Dundee to teach botany. in 1892 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He then moved in 1892 to Fort William, Scotland to work on a meteorological observatory on Ben Nevis. In 1894 he moved to Manchester to become a lecturer in political and commercial geography in the University of Manchester.

In 1985, he showed his interest in the teaching of geography in schools with a paper titled "The importance of geography in secondary education and the training of teachers therein." This was read at the 6th International Geographical Congress under the chair of Clements Markham, who was impressed by what Herbertson had to say on the matter.

The Bryce Commission reported in the same year. 

From 1896 to 1899 he lectured in industrial and commercial geography at Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh. In 1896 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were Peter Guthrie Tait, Sir John Murray, Ralph Copeland and Alexander Buchan. he was also acting editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine at this time.

In 1898 he received a doctorate (PhD) from University of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. In 1899 he moved to the University of Oxford to become a reader of geography; then became the first Oxford Professor of Geography in 1905.
He would become head of the geography department at Oxford in 1910, but while teaching there he also took over the role of Honorary Secretary of the GA in 1900. He solicited support from various organisations and made an effort to ensure that Geography's position was strengthened.
In 1908 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society.

One of the contributions that Herbertson has left is his work on the natural regions of the world. Even in the run up to the GCSE examinations, I used a diagram very similar to the one that Herbertson developed. It is shown in the paper that he gave on his work in this area, showing global biomes.


L. Dudley Stamp (a GA President himself at a later date) wrote a paper, in which he described this moment in 1904, when Herbertson introduced his work on natural regions.

Herbertson sadly died of a heart attack on 15 July 1915 in Radnage, Buckinghamshire. He is buried with his wife Frances Dorothy (who died two weeks later) in Holywell Cemetery nearby.

Halford Mackinder wrote at length about his legacy and his work. Mackinder will receive his own entry on the blog in time.
His entry in the Autumn Issue of 'The Geographical Teacher' for 1915 was outlined in black.


In 1965, fifty years after his death, L.J Jay also wrote a long piece on his services to school geography, which was published in 'Geography'. Mr. Jay was the Honorary Librarian of the GA, and a lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
Jay described his huge influence on the GA.
He apparently didn't possess the magnetism of Mackinder, but impressed students by amongst other things, "he had the ability to make a map of Central Europe come to life under his hand as he drew from memory on the blackboard'.

He was also an author whose books had enviable sales. His 'Junior Geography' apparently sold more than a third of a million copies - I wish the textbooks I've written had a 10th of those sales figures! He wrote a book called 'Man and his Work' with his wife which went into its 8th edition in 1946, almost 50 years after it was written and first published, and with only minor changes to the text and some new photographs. Read it here on the Internet Archive. I think it would new a few revision now though, having browsed through the first few chapters.

Herbertson joined the Council of the GA, and in 1900 a motion was carried which he had proposed which was that membership should be open to all teachers of geography and not just those in public or endowed secondary schools. When Dickinson resigned he was elected Honorary Secretary. He travelled from Oxford to visit the inaugural meetings of new branches in cities such as Sheffield.

When the GA launched its journal in 1901, Herbertson had to reassure the RGS that this was not a threat to their journals, which were more of an expeditionary nature.

As a teacher, he "urged the prime importance of studying the home district, and encouraged teachers to conduct their pupils on local field excursions using the relevant one-inch sheet of the Ordnance Survey Map" - at the time this was a novel idea.

Keltie had referred to this practice that he had observed in Germany, where it was called "Heimatskunde"

We owe Herbertson another debt, as he was successful in persuading the Director General of the Ordnance Survey to let teachers have OS maps at preferential rates. He didn't like the separation of the subject into human and physical, and also the large range of political and other subdivisions that students had to learn. This led to him developing his idea of natural regions shown earlier in this post. This was influential in further work by J. F Unstead and P. M. Roxby.

A generation of children in Britain were taught using the framework Herbertson developed, perhaps making him the Waugh and Bushell of his time :)
For those attending school between the two world wars, his influence persisted, through the work of L Dudely Stamp and others.

Jay also put me onto a book which will have its own separate blogpost to itself: Herbertson's chapter in a book edited by J W Adamson in 1907. This is called 'The practice of instruction'.

Herbertson includes a list which predates Hirsch by many decades, where he outlines what might be the 'minimum geographical knowledge' he expected of a 12 year old. He is also clear on the need for a properly trained teacher:



The Oxford University Geography Department also shared some further information on the role of Herbertson during his time at Oxford University in a special webpage:

• His passion for teaching geography brought Herbertson to Oxford in the first place: In 1895, he gave a paper on geographical education and teacher training to the Sixth International Geographical Congress in London. Halford Mackinder was so impressed by it that he hired Herbertson as his assistant. (Scargill, 1976)
• Herbertson and Mackinder initiated biennial summer schools at Oxford at which distinguished university teachers from Britain and abroad taught schoolteachers in the class and in the field. More than 850 teachers attended the five Vacation Courses organised by Herbertson between 1902 and 1914 and the influence he thus exerted on British school geography was immense.
• Herbertson and his wife were prolific authors of school textbooks: more than 1.4 million copies of their textbooks were used in the specialist secondary school teaching required under the 1902 Education Act.
• He produced a new series of wall maps (published 1914-15).
• Between 1900 until his untimely death he acted as secretary of the Geographical Association (the professional society for geography teachers) and was founding editor of its journal, Geographical Teacher, from 1901 to 1915. 
• Herbertson used both roles to argue for more and better geographical education in schools, particularly through field classes and practical work.

This has been updated.

References

Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_John_Herbertson

50 years on, L. J Jay's article:
JAY, L. J. “A. J. Herbertson : His Services to School Geography.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 350–361. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565960.

He was remembered in 2015, by the Oxford University Geography Department in this special webpage.
E. W Gilbert also gave an appreciation of his work at the GA Conference in 1965.

Halford Mackinder also made an emotional tribute to his work at the time of his death.

Work of Mackinder: STAMP, L. DUDLEY. “Major Natural Regions: Herbertson after Fifty Years.” Geography, vol. 42, no. 4, 1957, pp. 201–216. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564139.

An essay in Systematic Geography: https://www.people.iup.edu/rhoch/ClassPages/Thought%20and%20Philosophy/Readings/Week2/Herbertson.pdf

As always, if you know of any further information that would improve this post, or suggestions for additions and edits, please get in touch.

Update (May 2019)
It's always good to see that people are reading the blog. Thanks to Brendan Conway for his thoughts in this tweet

Interesting and important legacies of A.J. Herbertson for geographical learning over a century later e.g. spatial distribution of #biomes and access to @OrdnanceSurvey maps via @Digimap4Schools etc

— BC (@mildthing99) May 30, 2019

Update 2 (May 2019)
In the Spring 2016 issue of 'The Geographical Teacher', there was also a statement in memory of Mrs. Florence Herbertson.
She had done a great deal for the GA as well, and written a great deal in her own name.


Updated September 2019

Herbertson was also referenced by Joseph Acton Morris in his Presidential Address in 1966. He was a teacher and said that Herbertson's work was all based on the need to "improve the standard of geographical teaching".


Update early October 2019

From my personal collection... a good little book... co-written with his wife.


Updated October 2019
Mentioned in Darby's review of Academic Geography of the period.



Darby, H. C. “Academic Geography in Britain: 1918-1946.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 14–26. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622271

Update: December 2019

https://journals.openedition.org/cybergeo/2966 - a reference in a journal by Hugh Clout

Updated February 2020

As I got to the 1960s, I came across a Herbertson Memorial lecture by E. W. Gilbert, where he provides further information on Herbertson, as seen below.




GILBERT, E. W. “The Idea of the Region: Herbertson Memorial Lecture.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 3, 1960, pp. 157–175. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565156

Update April 2020

In 1965, a special article on A. J. Herbertson was published, the transcript of a lecture by E. W. Gilbert marking the centenary of his birth.



This is well worth reading for a much fuller picture of Herbertson's life and contributions to the GA.

It also makes the connection with another remarkable man: Patrick Geddes.

There's also an excellent anecdote of how Mackinder persuaded Herbertson to work with him rather than accept a job in New York.


GILBERT, E. W. “Andrew John Herbertson 1865-1915: An Appreciation of His Life and Work.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 313–331. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565956

To finish, a rather nice quote:




Update April 2020

While researching someone else, I came across Robert Neal Rudmose Brown's Herbertson Memorial Lecture of 1948 which is well worth reading.

Source:
Brown, R. N. Rudmose. “SCOTLAND AND SOME TRENDS IN GEOGRAPHY: JOHN MURRAY, PATRICK GEDDES and ANDREW HERBERTSON.” Geography, vol. 33, no. 3, 1948, pp. 107–120. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564415. Accessed 29 Apr. 2020.

Updated July 2022

Herbertson's influence was featured in a collection of essays which was co-edited by Emrys Bowen and also featured H J Fleure and a mention of H J Mackinder. It was published to coincide with the centenary of Aberystwyth University's Geography department.

It describes Herbertson's immense contribution between 1900 and 1915.

Fleure took over as Honorary Secretary in 1917, after being asked by Halford Mackinder.

Updated October 2023

Illustration from the first issue of a newsletter from 1975.

Scargill, D. I. “The RGS and the Foundations of Geography at Oxford.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 142, no. 3, 1976, pp. 438–61. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1795296. Accessed 4 Oct. 2023.