Richard Daugherty on H. J. Fleure

Another contribution to the blog which has been very kindly  provided by Richard Daugherty, GA President in 1989.

He writes here about H. J. Fleure. This is drawn on research he did at the Sheffield City Archives on the history of certain episodes in the GA's history. Once we are able to visit such place more freely I hope to get there. 

Fleure's original entry, from 1948 can be viewed here.

I also wrote about the move of the GA to Aberystwyth and the role of Fleure (and his assistants in the library) at that time.

The blog already refers to Fleure as being one of the 'true greats' in the Association's history. But should he perhaps be seen as the true great? 

There has been no other Honorary Secretary in the GA' s history who served in that office for as long as 29 years (1917 to 1946). And there is certainly no other past Honorary Secretary who increased the GA membership fourfold during their first three years in that office. 

One episode that reveals how much work, in addition to building up the Association's profile and membership, Fleure put in behind the scenes is the GA's office move from Aberystwyth to Manchester in 1930. Correspondence lodged in the GA records held in the Sheffield City Archives shows how he achieved such a satisfactory result, free office and library accommodation in Manchester City Council's High School of Commerce Building. 

Until Fleure's move from what is now Aberystwyth University to a post as Professor in Manchester University's Geography Department he carried out his work for the GA from an office located at 11 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth. 

With Fleure due to take up his new post in Manchester later in the year, the GA Executive considered offers of office accommodation from both the University, Fleure's new employers, and from the city's Education Committee. The University's offer was of a three year tenancy at 18 Lime Grove at a rent of £20 per year. Correspondence between Fleure and a Mr Stevenson, Chief Inspector of Schools for Manchester City Council, resulted in a better deal and the eventual move to the Council's High School of Commerce building. 

A letter from Fleure to Stevenson dated 1st March 1930 explains that the GA by then needed space for a library of 4000 books and its collection of lantern slides as well as room for an office. 

Fleure said:

"The possibility of my continuing my work for the Association as Hon Secretary depends on my having its office and library either in the Department of Geography or very near it" 

Where would the Association be today without such influential individuals as Fleure, who arranged and carried out the move to Manchester, and his successors who negotiated later office moves, first to university accommodation in Sheffield and then to the current offices in Solly Street?

Rachel Mary Fleming

Updated October 2025

Another in a succession of women who gave a great deal to the Association was Rachel Fleming. She was a great support to H J Fleure when the library and GA Offices moved to Aberystwyth and was his Assistant.

She was mentioned in Fleure's own entry on the blog as someone who supported his work and kept the library running smoothly at a time of great demand for its contents.

She did however get involved in some problematic work which is detailed later in this entry.

Source:


https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Update - October 2025

I was contacted by Vas who had located a letter for sale on eBay which was part of Aberystwyth's history.

The letter for sale was shown on the post and is included below:

It was sent in April 1921 to a Miss D M A Dickinson, who was it seems teaching at Rugby School, but had presumably paid for herself and a colleague to go on a GA organised trip to Guernsey of some kind, and is advising her to book boats and rooms for the trip.

It's lovely to see the handwriting of someone from over 100 years ago.

There's also a useful entry about Rachel Fleming here.

Miss Fleming is well known among teachers for her skill in using folk tales to impart a general knowledge of history and geography to children.

This sounds interesting.

Assistant to Professor H.J. Fleure at Aberystwyth, Miss R.M. Fleming, who had conducted research on 'half-castes' in Britain

This sounds... inappropriate... to modern geographers for certain... and very problematic. The link with eugenics is particularly troubling.

A fuller story of that report and the resulting issues, as well as he public statements on the matter can be viewed here.

Aspinall, P. and Caballero, C. (2021) Rachel Fleming’s Anthropometric Study. The Mixed Museum.

Rachel Mary Fleming is one of the category of people who are often invisible even in institutional histories, one of those who do their work with quiet devotion.

Text from some source which has been added to the Wiki entry:

"The work of the Geographical Association is still expanding rapidly, and we are all, as usual, deeply indebted to Miss R. M. Fleming, who, though without any official connection with the College, gives endless time to students to help them with problems and difficulties. It is therefore a special pleasure to state that this has been a year of very marked personal success for Miss Fleming, whose work has so long merited greater recognition. Her papers to the British Association at Edinburgh have appeared, one in the  "Scottish Geographical Magazine " (Geography and Tradition), and one in "Man" (Sex and Growth Characters in delation to Race Study). 

The latter was the subject of an evening lecture by Miss Fleming at the Royal Anthropological Institute. 

In addition to this Miss Fleming's book, "Ancient Tales from Many Lands" (1922), has had a quite unusually good reception, and has sold very rapidly

I hope it may influence not only educational methods, but anthropological research as well. 

This book is still available in reprinted versions.

It was reviewed in 'Nature' in 1922 

Miss Fleming adds in an appendix three essays in which she expounds her philosophy of the use of the folk-tale in education and the principles of selection. If any further indication were needed of the thought, wide reading, and experience which have been laid under contribution in the making of this book, it would be afforded by these essays.

Finally Miss Fleming has been invited to become one of the Secretaries of Section H (Anthropology) of the British Association. 

She has been President of the local branch of the Geographical Association during the current session.

Other publications

"The new geography". Times Educational supplement, 1920 - would be interesting to find this...

Fleming, Rachel M. 1933 A Study of Growth and Development: Observations in Successive Years on the Same Children. With a statistical analysis by W. J. Martin. Report to the Medical Research Council. London: is Majesty’s Stationary Office, Code No. 45-5-90

1917: Heading for Aber

Last updated October 2025

ABERYSTWYTH: 1917 - 1930
GA Honorary Secretary H. J. Fleure became the Professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University of Aberystwyth in 1917. He moved the GA’s library and office there, and used his Chairmanship of Council to promote international understanding as well as geography, so for the next 13 years the Association was based at the University of Aberystwyth. 

Fleure became the President of the GA in 1948.
He will have his own entry on the blog in due course.
He did a huge amount for the GA, holding several other vital roles for many decades. 

He is one of the greats of the Association, but also had some troubling views and problematic links with eugenics and race theory.

This passage below is from a Royal Society biography of Fleure, and describes this period. He was one of a handful of GA Presidents to be elected to the Royal Society.

Looking at documents from the time, the GA's address was shown as 1 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth.



I had a look on Google Street View for this building / address
Image copyright: Google Street View and image partners.

One of my aims for my Presidential year is to visit as many locations related to the history of the GA as possible, and to add some of my own images to the blog as possible to update the blog posts. I already have some images for some of the later presidents, which were taken over the years, but the blog has given me a slight additional purpose for visiting locations around the UK, which are associated with the development of the GA.

It's also important at this point that we mention several women who played a vital role at this time to maintain the library, and appropriate access to it.

• Mrs. Rachel Fleming completed a lot of work on a day-by-day basis for the Association, with very little pay offered, or available. There were fewer subscriptions to the Association because of the War. She served as Chief Clerk until 1930.
• Miss E J Rickard was Honorary Correspondence Secretary at this time.

They will both have their own posts on the blog in due course.

In 1923 there was another link made with Aberystwyth, as mentioned in Peter Fox's chronology.

1923: The GA Library and postal borrowing service moves to Aberystwyth. Members pay an extra five shillings to use this service to borrow one of the 500 books. 
The growth of the GA leads to the cessation of interest in educational matters by the RGS.

This last line was of interest, as it seems that for some time afterwards the RGS was "less concerned" with Education. That has all now changed of course, through the good works of Judith Mansell initially, and then Steve Brace and the current team who are involved in Education and Outdoor Learning at the RGS. There have been some interesting changes in the involvement of the RGS and IBG with schools over time. These will also be one of the recurring themes of the blog.

As we move nearer the time of the Action Plan for Geography of course, my knowledge of that relationship increases as I am proud to have been part of that team which delivered such a large and important project.

References

Garnett, Alice. “Herbert John Fleure. 1877-1969.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 16, 1970, pp. 253–278. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/769590.

https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/dges/about/centenary/historyofthedges/ - a mention for Fleure here

 Fleure, H.J. (1953) "Sixty years of geography and education", Geography, vol.38, pp.231-264
Image of Fleure: from GA archive

New source
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Update - October 2025

An earlier version of this post had 11 Marine Terrace as the address. Looking again, this piece from 'Geographical Teacher' gives the correct address, which was listed elsewhere on the blog as 1 Marine Terrace.

Source:

“Back Matter.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 9, no. 4, 1918. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40554572. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.