GA International Geography Network (GA IGN) - get involved

The GA IGN has been launched.

The GA International Geography Network is currently developing a network of regional hub coordinators, with colleagues already involved across South America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Our aim is to create locally relevant professional networks while remaining connected as part of a wider international geography community.

The GA IGN seeks to:

• provide an online space for sharing ideas, resources and best practice
• organise at least one online TeachMeet-style event each year
• facilitate at least one regional, face-to-face meetup each year
• encourage collaboration and professional dialogue between geography educators working in international settings
• support teachers and departments in developing high-quality geography education within their schools
• Improve representation of international geography teachers at the GA Annual Conference.

Here are the existing regional hub co-ordinators, but if you want to get involved, contact Matt Podbury.

Follow the link at the top of the post.

Update - 18th September 2026

Matt posted today that the response has been excellent...

Still time for you to get involved in this rapidly growing international network.

D. Chapallaz

I first noticed the name D. Chapallaz on a report on a consultation to create a single examination to replace CSE and 'O' Levels, which was proposed in the mid 1970s. It was over a decade until the GCSE was created and introduced - at the start of my teaching career.

I had a look to see who they were as it's an unusual name.

Mr. D. Chapallaz was the Secretary of the Secondary Schools Committee - the one I served on when it was called the SPC in the 1970s. He lived in Hitchin at the time - his address is included. He also served on other committees and his name appears in a range of articles.

I also found a Nick Chapallaz works for a company called GeoPlace - that's quite an unusual name and two people linked with geography and geospatial - he previously worked for ESRI UK - could there be a connection?

I wonder also if he was this old boy from Haberdashers' Aske's.

It would be good to find out more about Mr. Chapallaz and also an image too. Another of the many people to have passed through the Association's committees over the years, of which there are many thousands. A few have had their moment here, but many others still remain 'anonymous'.

Sources

“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 60, no. 4, 1975, pp. 311–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41415055 

Chapallaz, D.P., Davis, P.P., Fitzgerald, B.P., Grenyer, N., Rolfe, J. and Walker, D.R.F. (1970) Hypothesis Testing in Field Studies, Teaching Geography Occasional Papers 11, Sheffield: The Geographical Association.

The development of Geography

Quite a few GA Presidents are mentioned in this piece by Ivor Goodson, on how geography gained its status as a discipline.

It references several key times in geography's development, including the Madingley lecturers and the emergence of the 'new geography'

Source:

Goodson, Ivor. “Becoming an Academic Subject: Patterns of Explanation and Evolution.” British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 2, no. 2, 1981, pp. 163–80. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1393016. 

Bill Wallace

In my regular trawls through sources for additional nuggets of information on past GA Presidents, I come across other people who played a role in the Association, but never became President. It's a reminder of the importance of all those who volunteer their time to support the work of the Association, and have done for over 130 years! This is why being President is such a privilege.

Bill Wallace was involved with the Further Education Section of the GA. His work was in Further Education - what is now carried out by the Post-16 committee.

The piece was written by Marguerita Oughton, who wrote quite a few similar pieces at this time.

Oughton, M. “WILLIAM WALLACE.” Geography, vol. 48, no. 4, 1963, pp. 418–19. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40565722. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

Thought for the Day

"Geography furnishes entertainment for the young and gay and is a pleasing companion for the old and studious... [it] excites the admiration, interests the passions, entertains the fancy, eradicates prejudice and enlarges the faculties of the soul."

G A Baldwyn, 1797

From Bill Mead's Commonplace Geography

Thought for the Day

From Sir Cyril Norwood - GA President, 1946

COBRIG Meeting

As part of my Presidential journey I was asked to attend a meeting of COBRIG: the Council of British Geography.

This includes members from the following organisations - some educational and others from awarding bodies, inspectorates and government bodies. 

British Science Association (Geography group recorder) (BSA)
Conference of Heads of Geography in British Universities
Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, Northern Ireland (CCEA)
ESTYN
Geographical Association (GA)
Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, England (OFSTED)
Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS with IBG)
Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS)
Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT)
Welsh Joint Education Committee/Cyd-bwyllgor Addysg Cymru (WJEC / CBAC)

COBRIG has been in existence since 1988.

It was created:

"to advance the interests of geography, and is made up of all the main organisations of geographers and geographical educationists in Britain."

Prominent among its initiatives in the educational context has been the recent COBRIG-inspired Geography into the Twenty-First Century (Rawling and Daugherty, (1996)), which has at its heart the central issue to which this article has been addressed: putting the  geography back into geographical education. This offers the basis of a fruitful agenda as represented, among other things, in Haggett’s delineation of ‘the central and cherished aspects of geographical education: a love of landscape and of field exploration, a fascination with place, a wish to solve the spatial conundrums posed by spatial configurations’ (Haggett, 1996, p. 17); in Johnston’s advocacy of a refreshed, dynamic, and distinctive place geography (pp. 73-4); and in Jackson’s concern for developing sensitivity to place connections at a variety of scales (p. 91); or, as Allen and Massey have put it: 

‘We live local versions of the world and in so doing we have to locate ourselves within a wider global context. We only understand the changes taking place in our own backyard when we begin to understand how changes taking place elsewhere affect our world’ (1995, p. 1)

Source: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/pluginfile.php/631169/mod_resource/content/1/geog_sk6_06t_5.pdf 

Neil Simmonds and Eleanor Rawling were originally involved from the GA's perspective, along with Richard Daugherty.

COBRIG previously ran seminars for geographers as well through the 1990s in particular.

This meeting was held at the Royal Geographical Society - the first time I'd been there for about three years and it was good to be back in such a historic location.

It was lovely to meet some old friends - particularly Erica Caldwell who was representing SAGT / RSGS, and also to make new acquaintances.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license.

Four cheers for Geography

1992
Nelson Education Lecture
Sir Simon Jenkins is mentioned in the programme for this year's conference, which Eleanor Rawling sent me, as providing the lecture at the GA Conference:
"Four cheers for Geography"
He wrote a piece published in 2007 with his thoughts on the importance of the subject. This is one of a number of pieces published over the years which teachers have identified as being of support to the subject of geography.

In 2020, he called for a return to localism and community spirit.

He has also been referenced in other pieces on the value of Geography, such as this one in the FT on Theresa May becoming Prime Minister.

My publishers also sent him a copy of my 'Why Study Geography?' book. I hope he enjoyed it.

Chris Kington - 'the spark'

In late 2019, I met up with GA President for 2002: Chris Kington at an early screening of the film 'The Lighthouse' in Cambridge.

He told me about something that he had done when he was GA President to prepare for his Presidential lecture.
He had asked former GA Presidents, and also long-standing GA members to tell him when they first got the 'spark' that meant they pursued geography rather than other subjects, and moved into academic or other roles with a geographical theme. In early 2020, Chris gave me a series of letters: some tpyed, some word-processed and some hand-written. I was going to give them back to him, but then the first lockdown occurred and I haven't had a chance since.

I've added elements of those letters into the relevant biographies of several GA Presidents, and have another 10 or so to add in as we get nearer to the present day. Some of them are for Presidents who have not had their biography added yet. They are all really interesting letters and hugely variable. There are many references to particular teachers or university lecturers (including other former Presidents in some cases) and one can see the influences on these people who later became GA President in due course.

They include a copy of a letter sent by David Attenborough from his desk at the BBC in reply to a letter by Mike Morrish, who was the previous post on the blog, and the latest President to be added.
I've added some of these contributions to earlier blog posts, particularly when they are relevant...

Image: part of the letter sent by W.G.V. Balchin: author of the GA's Centenary book (1893-1993) and GA President in 1971.

1991: Eleanor Rawling MBE

Update July 2022

The GA is and has always played a vital role as a source of geography subject expertise, advice and community for geography teachers and geographers.

It is crucial that such a body exists in times of continuing educational and curriculum change and so I have felt it important to be involved and to contribute when I can.

I have also found it a place of friendship, intellectual challenge and social activity.

Eleanor Rawling (personal correspondence)

Eleanor Rawling has been involved in a wide range of geographical education activity for many decades, and has influenced the practice of many classroom teachers. Indeed, one could argue that she has done more than most to influence the geography that is taught in schools, particularly those that follow the National Curriculum.

Thanks to Eleanor for providing some useful information on her career and involvement with the Geographical Association.

Eleanor was born in Gloucestershire in 1949, and grew up in the Cotswolds.

She attended Chosen Hill Grammar/Technical School, Churchdown, Gloucestershire (a new school opened in 1959/60) and St Hilda's College, University of Oxford 

After attaining a degree in geography and a PGCE (1967-72) at the University of Oxford, she taught geography (11-18 years) at the John Mason School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. 

From 1976, she worked on two curriculum development projects: Schools Council Geography 16-19 at the University of London Institute of Education (1976-85) and the Geographical Association's Geography, Schools and Industry Project at the University of Oxford Department of Educational Studies (National Coordinator 1987-91). 

In 1984, she became Chair of Publications and Communications Committee of the GA, in which capacity she initiated the proposal for a GA Newsletter. In 1985, she became Editor of 'Teaching Geography' after Patrick Bailey finished his period of office.

In 1989, she was part of the National Curriculum Geography Working Group established by the government, and managed by the Department for Education and Science (DES) to outline a National Geography Curriculum. You may notice the names of several other Past Presidents on this group as well.

• Mrs. Kay Edwards—Head of Geography, Penglais Comprehensive School, Aberystwyth
• Mr. Richard Lethbridge—Former chairman, Tower Steel (Holdings) plc, now a branch secretary of the Country Landowners' Association
• Mrs. Wendy Morgan—Recently retired headmistress of Elmsett Primary School, Suffolk
• Dr. Keith Paterson—Senior Lecturer in Geography, Liverpool Institute of Higher Education
• Mrs. Eleanor Rawling—National Co-ordinator, Geography Schools and Industry Project
• Mr. Michael Storm—Staff Inspector for Geography and Environmental Studies, Inner London Education Authority
• Mrs. Rachel Thomas—Member of the Countryside Commission and Exmoor National Park Committee
• Mr. Rex Walford—Lecturer in Geography and Education, University of Cambridge

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1989/may/05/geography

Although Eleanor remained a member of the Group through to its report in 1991, she was unhappy with the approach taken to the curriculum and submitted a minority report which was not published.

In 1991, Eleanor was made a Research Fellow at the Oxford University Department of Educational Studies (later re-named Department of Education) and also became President of the Geographical Association (1991-2) and Chair of the Council of British Geography (1993-5). In her Presidential Address to the GA in 1992, Eleanor explained her concerns about the new national geography curriculum and her proposals for a more workable curriculum structure.

As Chair of the Council of British Geography she initiated the CoBRIG Seminars, bringing together those in schools and in higher education, research and teaching to consider big issues about the state and future of geography education. The 1994 seminar resulted in a book Geography into the 21st Century, co-edited/written with Richard Daugherty.

Eleanor told me that her MBE which was awarded in the New Year's Honours 1995 was specifically for her work with the GA and with the Council of British Geography.

From Eleanor's University Biography.

From 1993-2005, Eleanor was Professional Officer for Geography with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, during which time, she also maintained her research activity and publications via links with the Oxford Department. 

A Leverhulme Research Fellowship 1999-2000 allowed her to take secondment from QCA to carry out a study of the impact of curriculum policy on school geography and the resulting book Changing the Subject; the impact of national policy on school geography 1980-2000 has been widely cited both in and beyond the geography education world. This was followed by a BERA publication Connecting Policy and Practice; Research in Geography Education. Eleanor’s contribution to policy studies was recognised by the award of the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Back Award for contributions to geography and education policy in 2003.

She has given papers at a number of international conferences, including Brisbane, Washington DC, Toronto, New York and Boston. In 1992, she was a key speaker at the IGU International Congress held in Washington DC. and hosted by the National Geographic Society. She was also a visiting scholar to the NGS in that same year.

Source: http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/people/eleanor-rawling/

Since 2005, Eleanor has undertaken consultancy work for numerous organisations, including the Department for Education (England), edited the academic journal Geography, played roles in both the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association and been an active member of the Geography Education Research Collective (GEReCo). 

From Eleanor's university biography.

Eleanor kindly answered some questions via a Google Form.

Most recently, I have worked as an independent consultant in geography and education, doing work for the Department of Education, England on National Curriculum (2013-4), GCSE and A/AS Level (2014-17) and for the Welsh Assembly Government's Curriculum Department on the Welsh Curriculum Review (2017-19).

"My year was characterised by 'making the most of the National Curriculum' i.e. I and many others were not happy with the new geography National Curriculum we had but I was determined that we would provide teachers with all the help and support they needed to implement it. The GA produced a full range of leaflets, resources and publications and also ran teacher inset, designed to do just that. 

Behind the scenes, I also worked hard to try and change/amend/improve the curriculum - a theme which has coloured a lot of my working life. I was instrumental in setting up GA News - and appointing Mike Morrish (another former GA President in due course) to be the first editor. I count this as a huge success as the Newsletter has flourished and continues to the present day. 

Also I planned out a GA regional structure which got off the ground with a very successful pilot region (the North West, managed by some enterprising and enthusiastic lecturers and LEA advisers). The full structure never really ran successfully because we didn't have the funding to make it work on more than a voluntary basis. I made close contact with both the Association of American Geographers and the National Geographic Society and their growing work on supporting school teachers. This resulted in close relations and some sharing of ideas/resources.

When she was GA President, Eleanor was also being a mother to two young children, one of whom needed constant medical treatment and doing independent geography education consultancy work.

 

After my Presidential year, I was involved in the committee that reviewed the GA structure and committees and produced a new structure, and I continued on Council until I had to give up due to joining SCAA."

John Westaway was another former President who was also involved with SCAA. More on that to come in John's own entry on the blog.

Eleanor was also involved in the development of the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography in the mid 2000s. She developed the module on Cultural Geography, and helped shape this innovative curriculum.

This is where I first encountered Eleanor myself, at an event for those teachers who were teaching this wonderful qualification, which reinvigorated the final few years of my teaching before I started to work for the Geographical Association (and probably contributed to me getting that job in a small way as it was so creative and opened my eyes to the possibilities - along with the influence of Chris Durbin.)

Eleanor also attended the Geography Teacher Educators' conferences. These are excellent, and I have attended several over the years and remember chatting to Eleanor at the Oxford event a few years back, where I had been presenting on the GeoCapabilities project.

I've also had the pleasure of working with Eleanor since on the more recent GA working party on the curriculum which the GA convened around the time I was working for the GA, and also discussions at the GTE conferences I've attended. I remember this involved producing some mapping along with ESRI, I wonder if the maps still exist.

Eleanor also had the privilege of being the author of the first article to be included in the GA's new journal for teachers in 1975:  'Teaching Geography'.

She contributed many other pieces as well over the years, and co-wrote a number of books including one with Richard Daugherty (GA President in 1989). She was also part of the Editorial Collective of the journal 'Geography' for many years, guiding the relaunch of the journal.

Eleanor is still very active in geography and curriculum matters.
Eleanor attended the special dinner held to celebrate the GA's 125th Anniversary, and is pictured here.

Images copyright: Geographical Association and Bryan Ledgard

In recent years, Eleanor remains active as a curriculum consultant.

She also has an interest in place, and the use of poetry.

She has written a book on the poetry of place of Ivor Gurney and the county of Gloucestershire.

She comes at this from the perspective of a Geographer and someone who knows the area that Gurney wrote about well: https://ivorgurneytrust.com/who-we-helped-3/ 

Eleanor continues to be involved with the GA, and told me why she thinks this is so important:

"As a new teacher in the 1970s, I found the GA particularly helpful in giving me access to the wider community of teachers and the expertise of other geographers and educationalists. Writing for the journals (TG and Geography) and being a member of various committees and working groups was an essential part of my professional development and growth of confidence. (Very significant was the fact that, as a young teacher, I had an article accepted for the very first issue of Teaching Geography)".

She still keeps active as well:

I am a fell runner (still at 70 years of age) and a long distance walker. My enjoyment of exploring wild places has also provided a personal and emotional perspective on my activities as a geographer and GA member.

References
http://www.education.ox.ac.uk/people/eleanor-rawling/ - departmental profile and biography

Hansard - Working Party for NC - mention of Eleanor's involvement
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1989/may/05/geography

Books
Changing the Subject; the impact of national policy on school geography 1980-2000

RAWLING, ELEANOR. “Supermarket for Llandovery: —an Exercise in Field Research.” Teaching Geography, vol. 1, no. 1, 1975, pp. 7–10. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23749911

Article on Place: https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P4-2122398093/reflections-on-place

Rawling E, 2001, Changing the Subject; the impact of national policy on school geography 1980-2000 Sheffield, Geographical Association. 

Rawling E, 2004, School Geography Around the World,; a sample of 14 countries, in Kent, Rawling and Robinson , forthcoming IGU-CGE publication with Scottish Association of Geography Teachers for IGU Glasgow Congress August 2004. 

Westaway J and Rawling E, 2001, The Rises and Falls of School Geography Teaching Geography 26 (3) pp108-111. 

Rawling, Eleanor, and John Westaway. “Exploring Creativity.” Teaching Geography, vol. 28, no. 1, 2003, pp. 5–8. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23756441. Accessed 23 Dec. 2020.

RAWLING, ELEANOR. “Village in the Green Belt — an Introduction to Planning for Second Year Pupils.” Teaching Geography, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976, pp. 151–156. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751249.

GA Thinkpiece:

https://www.geography.org.uk/write/mediauploads/research%20library/ga_tp_s_planningcurriculum.pdf

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/pluginfile.php/631193/mod_resource/content/1/geog_t1_09t_2.pdf

I am grateful to Eleanor Rawling for her assistance with the entries for several other GA Presidents as well as her own.

If anyone has other memories of Eleanor's work with the Geographical Association please get in touch.

Simon Catling told me:

Eleanor Rawling is a particular friend who has provided great service for the geography education community for very many years, as one of our leading thinkers, essayists and promoters, always arguing geography’s case rigorously.

Update December 2020

Eleanor Rawling and Bryan Coates

(c) Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

At the relaunch of 'Geography'

(c) Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

Updated July 2022

I've met Eleanor a few times recently - at the GA Conference and also a COBRIG meeting at the RGS.

I worked on a paper for the recent IGU in Paris based on her work.

The paper is shared on ResearchGate.

1982: Huddersfield Polytechnic

In 1982, when Dick Lawton was GA President (as blogged last week), I received my 'A' level results and they were good enough to do a degree in Geography. I gained good enough grades for a place at Lancaster University, but went for a Polytechnic course as it was more practical, and also had the advantage of being close enough to home that I could head back home on the train. I started my undergraduate studies in Geography at Huddersfield Polytechnic in 1982. 

Huddersfield Polytechnic had an excellent course, which included a great deal of fieldwork and practical exercises. We went on a fieldtrip to France where we explored limestone landscapes around Besancon, and down to Somerset, where Tim Burt had his tensiometers, and Slapton as well (where my colleague Claire later worked for the FSC). We spent time on Saddleworth Moor exploring landslides, in the labs with Tony Vann exploring soil strength, drawing maps with Rotring pens, programming computers with punch cards and batch processing, and enjoying pints of Theakstons Old Peculier for 50p in the union bar, and peppery meat and potato pies and pancake rolls from the Mei Wah. Compared to the contact time of my own children in their current degrees, we had lectures five days a week and plenty of fieldwork as well.

Images here taken from Huddersfield Alumni Facebook group. There are hundreds of excellent images shared on this group page. I lived up on the top of the hill shown in the middle of the photograph where there is a road heading up to the skyline. Castle Hill is shown top left, with the silhouette of the tower and the pub (now demolished). The mill chimneys top right were just along from where I lived, and I walked over there some days for cracking fish and chips.

My tutor was Tim Burt, who left part of the way through my course for a job at Cambridge University before heading for Durham University. More on Tim Burt nearer the present day, as he's been an inspiration for many years, and is closely linked with the FSC. I did a dissertation on stream ordering methods (the Parkinson method didn't catch on sadly) and spent weeks up in the Peak District up the Snake Pass in great heat measuring stream networks.

David Butcher took over from Tim Burt, and was another wonderful lecturer specialising in water. I specialised in the physical geography topics.

Other lecturers I remember from the course:

Alan Pitkethly (a legend who died well before his time), John Fernie (energy), Jim Wrathall (already featured on this blog - agriculture specialist), Derek Reeve (early exponent of GIS and computer mapping), Lance Tufnell (climate change and glaciation - almost went that way for my dissertation).

I made some lifelong friends and memories, with the Bent St. boys and time at Peckforton Castle amongst them. I remember winters with many snowy days, and a final year at the Ashenhurst halls of residence.

Any other Huddersfield alumni?

Geography is...

An awesome Editorial in the latest Area.
Written by Hilary Geoghagen, Sarah Marie Hall, Alan Latham and Julian Leyland.

It starts brilliantly:

Geography is a sprawling, ragged, gorgeous discipline. It ranges across the physical and social sciences into the humanities and the performance arts. It's a discipline with a whole heap of different ways of doing what it does. It maps and models. Critiques and exposes. Drills and digs. Surveys and measures. Talks and hangs out with. Theorises. Analyses. Deconstructs. 
It's a discipline that both knows what it's about, and yet, were you to ask a group of academic geographers what exactly it is that defines geography each would give a different answer. Stuffy and hip, it's a discipline with too much difference for some and yet not nearly enough for others.

Reference
https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/area.12642?campaign=woletoc#.XzqSRZJ96Ws.twitter

Some sources of information: GA journals

To research the Presidents for the blog, I have used a number of sources.

These include those listed at the bottom of each blog post, but it's worth mentioning the GA's journals, which include notes on previous meetings, AGMs, Presidential addresses and 'Back and Front Matter; which features details on conferences, branch meetings, meetings and minutes, and changes of GA officers, from which one can chart the involvement of particular characters who then emerge as President having served their time in other roles.

The Geographical Teacher was the first of the GA's journals. It had its first issue in 1901. Although there was no issue in 1902, it returned in 1903, and then continued for several decades. It was edited by John Scott Keltie for many years, Beckit and Roxby earlier, and other names then took over. All past issues are available on the JSTOR archive for 'Geography' subscribers - login via the GA website.
This has some wonderful articles, and it's good to see female geographers so well featured, even in early editions (although the GA's formation is connected with the position of women within the RGS, so perhaps this is not so surprising). We still have an imbalance in the number of male to female Presidents of course (and my own taking-up of the Post doesn't help with that...)



It later became the journal Geography. This is also available on the JSTOR archive for subscribers.
This is the academic outlet of the association, with useful information on AGMs, formation of committees, branch activities and other activity.
More recently, an editorial collective shaped the new format, which to begin with slimmed down the many pages of references which accompanied many articles, and which many people will never read anyway.

Teaching Geography was launched in the mid 1970s - more on that to come when I get that far.
This features articles relating to pedagogy in the secondary classroom, and also some

The GA Magazine is a more newsy journal, which also shares news of GA policy and committees and special interest groups, as well as projects.
Issues dating back to 2004 (Issue 77) are available online.

I gained a few useful entries from there, and went up to Solly St over the summer to go through the paper archive copies. Early issues of the GA Magazine did contain some details of Presidents, but few and far between. We've also moved away from the tradition of printing Presidential Addresses.

Primary Geographer (now Primary Geography) was first published in the 1990s.
I am pleased to have contributed some articles to all of the GA's journals over the years, including most-recently a piece in the Spring 2020 issue of Primary Geography.
Issues back to 2004 (Issue 55) are available online.

GA members who subscribe to the present day journal 'Geography' will find they have access to an electronic back catalogue of all issues going back to 1901, which has been produced in association with JSTOR.
This has been the primary source for information on the proceedings of the Association, as outlined at the AGMs.
A similar facility exists for Teaching Geography too, going back to the early issues of the journal. Others have researched this archive such as Indra Persaud.
I think there may also be plans to digitise Primary Geography(er)

Other sources were:
Wikipedia - some of the older, more illustrious Presidents have pages, whereas more recent Presidents are less likely to be featured. I may well encourage some page building nearer the time as we move later into the 20th Century.
Many of their entries didn't have mention of the Geographical Association Presidency, so I have edited these entries to include reference to the GA.

Classroom Geographer journal has previously been mentioned as well. I have most of a full set of this journal.

Fieldwork - OFQUAL consultation

“Fieldwork is the best and most immediate means of bringing the two aspects of the subject (i.e. a body of knowledge and a distinctive method of study) together in the experience of the pupil. Therefore, fieldwork is a necessary part of geographical education; it is not an optional extra”  

(Bailey, 1974)

Over the years I've been part of many consultations and responses to consultations from the GA and also in a personal capacity. 
Over the years the GA and other bodies have had to fight to keep aspects of the subject, indeed the whole subject itself, on the curriculum.
Many consultations receive a low number of responses.
This often plays to those who want to skew the result in a particular way by saying "look, there's no real opposition to this in the responses to the consultation".
OFQUAL has a consultation running until the 16th of July. TAKE PART!

This consultation is on the content and running of the 2021 Exams for GCSE, AS (which nobody really does anymore) and A levels. There are some suggested changes which are being consulted on.



Here is the bit that is important for us as geographers.

A look at the annex shows that the History GCSEs have had their content slimmed down - sometimes losing quite a lot of content, but Geography has just had the fieldwork element removed.

If fieldwork goes, then there is a great possibility that it will be lost forever, and if we have "done without it" the expectation will be that we can continue to "do without it".

The wording could perhaps be adapted so that the requirement to carry out fieldwork "beyond the school gates" is removed - there are options for fieldwork on the school grounds, or in the immediate area, or using secondary data more substantially. Or remove the requirement for it to be assessed in quite the way that it is currently, or perhaps as an alternative to a part of the course, that those schools who had already carried out fieldwork could opt for.

It is very important that fieldwork is retained. Remove other course content to free up time but keep one of the key elements of geographical study, and one which so many other former and indeed present Geographical Association Presidents have championed and fought for in decades past.
From Geoffrey Hutchings, to Patrick Bailey, to Nick Lapthorn and Gill Miller (and others) the GA has led on a whole range of fieldwork projects. The GA has a stategic partnership with the GA, showing the value placed on fieldwork. August 2015-16 saw the Year of Fieldwork.
During the summer the 2nd edition of my new book on 'Fieldwork through Enquiry' - a 2nd edition of the popular book co-written with John Widdowson will be published.

Virtual experiences are not fieldwork...
Chris Durbin's quote remains important here: "virtual fieldwork is like a virtual pint of beer~....


Add your voice to keep fieldwork.
For ideas for local and school-based fieldwork check out the GA's Geography from Home section of the website.

This blogpost represents my personal views.
The Geographical Association is also responding to the consultation and recommending to other geography teachers that they do the same.
Here's Alan Kinder's view in the TES

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.

1897 - 1911: Douglas William Freshfield

Updated September 2023

In 1897, following a period during which the Association was developing its constitution and statutes, Douglas W Freshfield became the first President of the Geographical Association (GA). 

This followed his resignation from the Royal Geographical Society, apparently partly because the organisation would not admit women Fellows. 

He remained in office until 1911, a period which has not been surpassed since, and will not now be, as the Presidency is a one year post (bracketed by other related responsibilities)

From the chronology written by Peter Jackson for the GA website. (see separate blog post)

Douglas Freshfield was one of the people who attended the first meeting when the Association was formed. He was the first Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society.

He was born on the 27th of April 1845, and died on 9th of February 1934. 

He was a lawyer, mountaineer and author and also edited the 'Alpine Journal'. 

He was educated at Eton College, and University College, Oxford.

He also wrote a quote that I have used many times in my CPD sessions in the first issue of 'The Geographical Teacher': the first journal that the GA published (of which more to come later in the blog) about the importance of teachers coming together to learn from each other.

This can be read in the image to the right.

This was published in 1901, and was free to members, (but cost one shilling for non-members). This was an important element of the work of the GA, and remains so today.

Douglas Freshfield was heavily involved with the GA from the very early days of the Association.

In 1899,  Freshfield accompanied another future President: E. J. Garwood, on an expedition to Kangchenjunga and explored the geological structure and physical features of Sikkim. Images taken during trips like this helped build the lantern slide library owned and shared by the GA as part of its founding purpose, and which was revisited for the Geographers Gaze project.

In 1900, GA membership opened to all teachers of geography irrespective of age, gender or type of school.

Key lectures were given at this time by H. J. Mackinder on 'Geography as Training for the Mind' and B. B. Dickinson on 'The Use of the Lantern Slide'.

Update
These were referenced by Emily Hayes in her PhD thesis - more on that to come in future blog posts as I discuss the early importance of the lantern slide as a resource for geography teaching and knowledge exchange.

Douglas Freshfield was working as Honorary Secretary to the RGS when he became involved in the founding of the Association. He had made some decisions which were apparently not always welcome by the President at the time: Clements Markham.

On his mountaineering exploits:

He also became the first mountaineer to examine the western face of Kangchenjunga, which rises from the Kanchenjunga Glacier. Freshfield described Siniolchu as "The Most Superb Triumph of Mountain Architecture and The Most Beautiful Snow Mountain in the World".

He made some notable first summits, including in the Caucasus - see later tweet update towards the bottom of the post.

The first British climbing party in the Caucasus (1868) - Douglas Freshfield, the expedition leader is seated right. pic.twitter.com/V0q8WUCY5p

— Christian Drury (@cj_drury) January 25, 2016

In 1905 he attempted to climb Rwenzori Abruzzi in Uganda but failed due to bad weather. 

However the Freshfield Pass on the mountain was named after him. This makes him one of several GA Presidents who have geographical features named after them. Keep an eye out for them as the blog develops. There are various examples of different features.



Freshfield Pass and Mount Stanley - Image source and copyright

Rex Walford's book on School Geography (an important source for this blog) reminds us that Freshfield also had concerns that the membership of the RGS (at the time) did not allow women to become Fellows, although the RGS had given them awards and indeed Fellowships, until the full society forced the Council to back down on this issue later on.
Freshfield penned a brief quatrain at the time:

The question, our dissentients bellow

Is can a woman be a Fellow?

That, sirs, will be no question, when

Our Fellows are all Gentlemen!

Freshfield did re-establish his connections with the RGS later in the later part of his period as GA President. He was also awarded the RGS Founder's Medal in 1903.
(Walford, 2001) - pp.68-9

The work that Freshfield led can be followed by visiting the JSTOR archive of the 'Geographical Teacher' journal. He chaired the AGM and other meetings of the Association and these are reported each year, often held in different venues offered free of charge at the time.

At the AGM of 1903, Freshfield reminded those present that:

"The Geographical Association began its corporate existence as a body militant, a body struggling against a national and professional apathy, of which they recognised the dangers".

At the same event, there was a reminder of the ties between the Ordnance Survey and the GA, which have persisted for over a century as well, with Charles Close being a later President.

During this period, there was continued growth in the Association, and branches opened in Sheffield and Huddersfield (1907), Leeds (1911) and other cities - I have visited and spoken at these branches, as well as many others. Efforts continued to develop the position of geography in universities at degree level to allow Honours degrees to develop.

When Freshfield stepped down in 1911, the Presidency became an annual appointment, and efforts were made to bring in distinguished outsiders with geographic interests to strengthen the standing of the Association. This pattern persisted for a few years.

At the 50th Anniversary conference in 1943, T. C. Warrington reflected on Freshfield's contribution to the GA, saying this about him:

Douglas Freshfield, who became leader of the movement in the Royal Geographical Society for the improvement of geographical education, had been a member of its Council since 1878 and Secretary from 1881. By the end of 1893, he had retired from the Council and from the secretaryship in protest against the action of the Society in denying ladies admission as Fellows. From the beginning his interest in the Geographical Association was keen.

In 1898 he became its first President and remained in office till 1911. His interest in the improvement of the teaching of geography was primarily enlisted for public schools and universities, but he was president of this Association when, in 1900, its doors were thrown open to all teachers of geography. Our debt to him for the improvement of the teaching of geography, for his help and guidance and encouragement in the formative years of the Association cannot easily be measured.

In 1911, he gave his Valedictory Address after 14 years as President, where he reflected on his time as President, and the changes in the nature of the discipline.

In this address he returned to the reasons for his original exit from the RGS.

"The reason why some of us wanted to see ladies in the Society was that many ladies are engaged in geographical teaching and often in high posts. The Geographical Association was founded to give those ladies facilities denied them elsewhere."

Freshfield went on to be elected as President of the Royal Geographical Society between 1914-17 - cementing the relationships between the two organisations.

References

Valedictory Address: FRESHFIELD, DOUGLAS W. “VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 6, no. 1, 1911, pp. 5–9. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40554086.

This is well worth reading!

An obituary following Freshfield's death in 1934 is linked to here

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Douglas-William-Freshfield - an entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica - not many GA Presidents have one of those.

Some details from Balchin's Centenary history of the Association used in this post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Freshfield - 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.

Image: Wikimedia - Creative Commons

ABE Books for 2nd hand copies of books by Freshfield - if I was doing this properly I would try to get books from as many of the Presidents as possible - I still might over the years to come, although I guess they are in the GA archive, and I will try to get access to those during my time as President and perhaps turn this blog into a proper book: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=Douglas+Freshfield&tn=&kn=&isbn=

At the end of each post, there will be a request for anyone who has further additions to add them as a comment. 

UPDATE (May 2019)

While compiling the entry for John Scott Keltie, I came across some words from Douglas Freshfield following Kelties' Presidential Address in 2014
You can read it here:

Presidential Address: KELTIE, J. SCOTT. “THIRTY YEARS' PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHICAL EDUCATION.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 7, no. 4, 1914, pp. 215–227. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40555979.

Freshfield was referenced in Keltie's address, for his work in the early years of the Association, but there was a nice quote in Freshfield's comments, which also referred to the GA's founding and the link with the RGS and their position on female fellows. He thanks Keltie for having "created and maintained the leading Geographical Journal of the World"

There is an interesting quote on fieldwork or "out of door work" as Keltie referred to it. He describes a visit to Japan and France where he had seen teachers taking students outside. He makes the connection with the Boy Scouts, which at that stage was quite a new organisation, having been founded in 1908....

"Give the Boy Scouts a rough map of some very think and difficult wood, with instructions to look for their lunch at a particular spot, and they will develop remarkable skill in map-reading." - I may hide the packed lunches on our next field trip accordingly....

Updated June 2019 - additional links to Emily Hayes PhD thesis

Updated November 2019
Image of his grave from Wikipedia


Plus details on Ugandan mountaineering
https://www.rwenzoriabruzzi.com/highest-peaks-of-the-Rwenzori

For further research:

The Alpine Club has a series of Douglas Freshfield's papers including correspondence and other documents
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=douglas+freshfield+alpine+club

The RGS Archives - apparently his writing was "very hard to read" - there are documents here relating to the Everest expedition of the 1920s, so will have to try to access those
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/b46cabd2-de41-4d6d-9a91-06ca17dde4d9

Search on items
https://rgs.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=217804&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20douglas%20and%20kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20freshfield

These include some lantern slides from his Ugandan climbs, which were apparently destroyed in February 1951 as they had faded.

Updated November 2020

In 1899 the noted British explorer Douglas Freshfield accompanied by the great Italian photographer Vittorio Sella did a circuit around Kangchenjunga. Freshfield described Siniolchu as “The Most Superb Triumph of Mountain Architecture and The Most Beautiful Snow Mountain in the World” in his book Round Kangchenjunga. Here Siniolchu is seen from the "Rest Camp" on the Zemu Glacier one day short of the Green Lakes Base Camp.

In 1868 the British lawyer & mountaineer Douglas Freshfield led an exploration of #Caucasus and was the first man, officially, to conquer #Kazbegi mountain with guides from the village Gergeti. 🇬🇪🇬🇧

— Tamar Beruchashvili - თამარ ბერუჩაშვილი (@tberuch) December 22, 2019

Douglas Freshfield said he found in Sikkim ". . . the most beautiful mountain in the world.” pic.twitter.com/Y3JGVrQnUL

— sherpafeet (@sherpafeet) March 12, 2017

The first British climbing party in the Caucasus (1868) - Douglas Freshfield, the expedition leader is seated right. pic.twitter.com/V0q8WUCY5p

— Christian Drury (@cj_drury) January 25, 2016

Updated August 2021

A set of Freshfield's journals from the Caucasus expedition sold for £4750 at Sotheby's auction house in London - part of a collection that was being auctioned.

Here's the description of the lot:

Freshfield first climbed Mont Blanc as a schoolboy, made at least twenty first ascents in the 1860s and 1870s, chiefly of lesser known-peaks in the Italian Alps, and was president of the Alpine Club from 1893 to 1895. "In 1868 he explored, together with Charles Tucker, Adolphus Moor, and his lifelong friend François Devouassoud, the central Caucasus, which, except for the lower heights, were then unknown. He made the first ascent of Kazbek (16,546 ft), Elbrus (18,470 ft), and several other peaks, and recorded the existence of large glaciers in the regions between them. After returning to the Caucasus in 1887 and 1889 he published his Exploration of the Caucasus (1896), which was for a time a standard work. In 1899 he visited India, Burma, and Ceylon, and made, with Dr Edmund Johnston Garwood, the circuit of Kanchenjunga through unmapped territory in Sikkim and Nepal, recorded in Round Kanchenjunga (1903) [see lot 532]. Lastly, in 1905, at the age of sixty, he tried, with A. L. Mumm, to ascend Ruwenzori in Uganda, then known as the Mountains of the Moon, but was stopped by bad weather and mud at 12,000 ft." (ODNB).

Updated July 2022

Freshfield in later life supported others.

He was particularly active in mountaineering.

The first British climbing party in the Caucasus (1868) - Douglas Freshfield, the expedition leader is seated right. pic.twitter.com/V0q8WUCY5p

— Christian Drury (@cj_drury) January 25, 2016

And a local example:

As a geographer favourite feature of Forsy Row is the Village Hall which was founded by Douglas Freshfield, a local resident, who was also an active member of @RGS_IBG and its one time president https://t.co/HSSXrtger8

— Andrew Böber (@AndrewBober) May 28, 2018

I then found his entry in the series of Biobibliographical Studies. 

A little more about his later life:

A good quote in this final extract from that book as well:

And more on his work at the GA: "a militant body"

Updated August 2023

Some further tweaks and amendments.

Remember though average of 30,000 attempts on Mont Blanc per year. In 1899 Douglas Freshfield predicted the Himalayas to become the 'playground of the world' as Alps were 'the playground of Europe'. There's still a long way to go!https://t.co/0wBG5KUhz9#everest #Mallory https://t.co/dKEKbgWE6d

— mick conefrey (@mickulus) April 25, 2023

Douglas Freshfield's two-volume work, "The Exploration of the Caucasus" in English was donated to the National Library of Abkhazia by George Hewitt, a British linguist and Emeritus Professor of Caucasian languages. https://t.co/J83QogHIhi

— Abkhaz World (@AbkhazWorld) February 2, 2023

Siniolchu is one of the tallest mountains in Sikkim.The 6,888 metres mountain is considered to be particularly aesthetically attractive, having been described by Douglas Freshfield as "the most triumph of mountain architecture and the most beautiful snow mountain in the world" pic.twitter.com/ZCtchPXXyv

— MedalsandRibbons (@Medals_Ribbons) December 23, 2022

Glorious day on Kazbegi, 153 years to the day since Douglas Freshfield's first foreign ascent in 1868 #Georgia pic.twitter.com/bNSQZR7WOa

— Mark Clayton (@MarkClaytonFCDO) June 25, 2021

I discovered a book about Douglas W Freshfield and have ordered a second hand copy. It says that he was the youngest schoolboy to climb Mt. Blanc in 1863.

From the Alpine Journal obituary (source of the image above) which shows his remarkable career and how highly he was held in regard.

https://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1934_files/AJ46%201934%20166-198%20In%20Memoriam.pdf

He was in Anthony Wolley-Dod's house at Eton. - an interesting character himself.

It is hard to realize that he made a 'first ascent' as far back as 1861. He may be said to have descended from mountaineering stock, for his mother, Mrs. Henry Freshfield, was a mountain wanderer before the Victorian era and the gifted authoress of A Summer Tour in the Grisons and Italian Valleys of the Bernina (1862)

In 1923 the University of Geneva conferred on him the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws. He married, in 1869, Augusta Charlotte, daughter of the Ron. William Ritchie; sh~ died in 1911. He leaves four daughters, his only son dying as a schoolboy. He was a barrister at the Inner Temple and a J.P. 'for Sussex. 

It features a memory from E J Garwood (another former GA President)

https://charlottemasonpoetry.org/the-teaching-of-geography-by-r-a-pennethorne/ - 1956

Some of us remember the first stirring of the dry bones—and how our founder gave the results of her personal walks and investigations of our own country to the world as The Forty-two Shires—of how the London University Lectures on the subject were given in the ‘Eighties’—of how the Schools of Geography were founded, and largely through the inspiration of Dr. Douglas Freshfield, the ‘Geographical Association’ grew out of the Royal Geographical Society, and the path was ready for the mental explorer and discoverer to tread.

Referenced here:

https://blogs.egu.eu/geolog/2016/05/11/the-final-days-of-the-mountain-glaciers/

Updated September 2023

The controversy over women fellows at the RGS-IBG and Freshfield's involvement is outlined in this article:

Source:

Bell, Morag, and Cheryl McEwan. “The Admission of Women Fellows to the Royal Geographical Society, 1892-1914; the Controversy and the Outcome.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 162, no. 3, 1996, pp. 295–312. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3059652. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

“DOUGLAS WILLIAM FRESHFIELD.” Geography, vol. 19, no. 1, 1934, pp. 60–60. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40558766. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.