G H Dury, David Linton and the CIU

When I took my'A' level Geography back in 1980-1982 - doesn't seem possible but it's true - I was asked to buy a Penguin copy of 'The Face of the Earth' by G H Dury. It was actually the same edition as the one shown here on the right.

George Harry Dury's name has cropped up in association with several GA Presidents.

Dury was a hydrologist, interested in rivers. and more widely in geomorphology. He was born in Northants, and studied at the University of London. He taught geography at Birkbeck College. He developed models which extended Bradshaw's Model for rivers.

Like David Leslie Linton, he was involved in air photography interpretation during the war - see Brendan Conway's excellent post on RAF Medmenham for more details on this. Also Balchin's report on wartime geographers features Medmenham. The Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) also included Professor Frank Debenham for example.

Thanks to Brendan Conway for some excellent additional research here as well on G H Dury's work in wartime. Here's what Brendan sent me a few months ago when I mentioned David Linton's wartime work.

One thing about the David Linton profile I found particularly interesting was his WWII work in photographic interpretation, especially in identifying the underground V-weapon factory in northern France (now La Coupole https://www.lacoupole-france.co.uk/history-centre.html).

It reminded me of something that I've noticed cropping up a few times - the role of geographers in WWII intelligence in places such as RAF Medmenham. Linton is one of several who played key roles in intelligence in a similar way to GIS experts in the Bellingcat organisation now.

Other geographers involved in similar WWII activity included H Clifford Darby and Kenneth Mason in Naval Intelligence (https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/humanities-scholars-who-worked-military-intelligence-second-world-war) and G H Dury (George Harry Dury) in photographic interpretation (RAF Medmenham) (https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0020-2754.1997.00398.x).

There's a good book about such work, including interesting references to RAF Medmenham by Jeremy Harwood called 'World War II from Above'. Harwood wrote an article about it 'Spies in the Skies: How Aerial Surveillance Tipped the Balance of WWII'. Here are some quotes indicating links with geographical expertise and how it was used:

'The staff—mostly an eclectic mix of boffins and academics with quite a few women among them—comprised some of the best brains in the country...Glyn Daniel, the first Cambridge archaeologist to be recruited to the Medmenham operation, described his new colleagues as "an ill-assembled collection of dons, artists, ballet designers, newspaper editors, and writers'.

'...the students were introduced to stereoscopic viewing. They were taught how to handle a stereoscopic viewing frame—this was universally referred to simply as a "Stereo." The two photographic prints that fitted into it were termed a "Stereo Pair." '

​Would Linton have worked with Constance Babington Smith?

'Constance Babington Smith was one of them. As well as being the photographic interpreter who first spotted a V1 Flying Bomb on its way for testing, she was the first to spot the Messerschmitt Me 163 rocket fighter, the Heinkel He 28, the world's first jet fighter, and the revolutionary Messerschmitt Me 262, the twin-engine jet fighter that, fortunately for British and American airmen, Hitler insisted be redesigned to be deployed as a fighter-bomber. She and her team detected other top-secret German aircraft prototypes into the bargain'.

Painstaking interpretation would culminate in the meticulous creation of 3D landscape models used to prepare for bombing raids and battles. There's an interesting reference to the challenging geographical learning required by aircrews:

'By the time the war ended, Medmenham's model makers had churned out more than 1,400 models. Some, like the models of the Möhne, Eder, and Sorpedams used to brief the Dam Busters prior to their famous 1943 air attack, were extremely elaborate. Such was the reliance Bomber Command placed on them that, according to Paul Brickhill, author of The Dam Busters, the aircrews taking part in the attack were instructed to "look at these until your eyes stick out and you've got every detail photographed on your mind." '

It's also known that Ronald Lampitt, much admired by geographers and certainly one of my favourite artists, worked in this area of intelligence. His 'geographical eye' and recurring tendency to view almost everything he illustrated from above seems likely to have been strongly influenced by his wartime work, but perhaps also by working with geographers? I'd never been able to find out much about his role during the war until last week when I stumbled across reference to his work by the scientific military intelligence expert RV Jones in his book 'Most Secret War'. It seems that he was very close to the V-weapon investigations as well, so there would be a possibility that he worked with Linton at some point. I summarised the findings in this thread:

https://twitter.com/mildthing99/status/1256611375411073024

Lampitt was recruited by Albert Hugh Smith, who was clearly very close to RV Jones. He later went on to become Professor of English at UCL and acclaimed scholar of Scandinavian Studies and English placenames, so he clearly had geographical interests. Perhaps he had links with Bill Mead at UCL who was also a Scandinavian expert?

Delighted to see the link to Ronald Lampitt - a favourite of mine who I wrote about for the Ordnance Survey's magazine back in the day. I have a much loved copy of the book, and it will definitely have a place in my Presidential lecture in 2022.
Lampitt's illustrations were included in the book which came out in 1948
I wonder if the author also worked in the same sort of setting.
In The Map that Came to Life the map is portrayed as an objective, precise and above all truthful mirror of nature. And this inherent trustworthiness enabled maps to become important features of the lives of successive generations of people.

More on the author and the book here.

Lampitt’s war service was spent with RAF Intelligence. He created meticulous, hand-drawn maps for allied bomber crews, based on aerial reconnaissance photographs. It was this period of his life that started Lampitt’s fascination with aerial views, which he would later use to great effect in The Map That Came To Life.

Sources: 
Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._H._Dury

Balchin, W. G. V. “United Kingdom Geographers in the Second World War: A Report.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 153, no. 2, 1987, pp. 159–180. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/634869. Accessed 16 June 2020.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00049189708703182

Dury, G. H. “Geography and Geomorphology: The Last Fifty Years.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 90–99. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622279. Accessed 16 June 2020.

Thanks to Brendan Conway for the additions to this post.
If anyone knows more about these wartime geographers please get in touch.

1936: Founding of the GA Cambridge Branch

While doing some searching on Facebook for archive images of GA activity over the years, and trying to track down images of individuals, I came across this clipping from the newspaper, posted by Mike Petty, of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Cambridge Branch of the GA in 1986.


There is a lovely origin story for the branch, with Edith Butcher pictured in the middle of the photo returning from a GA conference held in Sheffield and teaming up with one the original founders B. B. Dickinson, who had retired to Cambridge after finishing teaching at Rugby School.

Good to see Rex Walford here as well as Professor Clifford Darby (who deserves his own entry later, despite not having been GA President). They also had an address from Frank Debenham to kick start the branch.

Does any other GA Branch have similarly auspicious beginnings I wonder?

1933: Professor Percy Maude Roxby

Last updated June 2024

Percy Maude Roxby was  an academic geographer connected with the University of Liverpool, and an expert on the geography of China.

He was born in 1880, and educated in History at Oxford University, but was appointed as lecturer in Regional Geography at the University of Liverpool in 1906.

He was one of the many people who were influenced by, and responded to, the work and teachings of A. J. Herbertson, who has featured previously on the blog.

He wrote a paper called "What is a natural region" in response to Herbertson's work and set out ideas for organising how geography could be taught in secondary schools. This connection with school geography has been an important part of many GA President's roles and legacies, and Roxby was particularly important in this regard.

He was also involved with the GA for a considerable period of time before being President, and so became one of the group of GA Presidents who were being 'rewarded' for their service to the Association during this period in its history.

The honours school of Geography at the University was formally approved in 1917-18, when Percy Maude Roxby was appointed as the first named chair of Geography in the British Isles.

Roxby visited China several times and wrote a book on the country as well, at a time when relatively little was known about the country. This is one of his great contributions to the work of the GA.

He traveled extensively in China, and both studied and wrote about Chinese geography. This was his particular passion.
Meanwhile, he promoted mutual understanding between China and Britain through geography. He also supervised the Department of Geography at Liverpool University and trained Chinese geographers. 
Overall, Percy Maude Roxby played a significant role in Chinese geography including his own research, the internationalization of Chinese geography, and cultivation of Chinese scholars, all of which should be included in the history of modern Chinese geography.
This becomes even more significant now, given the growing power of China on the world stage.

He wrote a whole series of articles for GA journals. His Presidential Address was on the theme of China as an Entity, compared with Europe, as one would have expected.

Roxby died in 1947, and a prize in his name was introduced at the University of Liverpool after his death. This was to pay for a geographer to travel - something Roxby was a big promoter of.

His name was also connected with another, later President, who will have his own entry in due course.

Dick Lawton was inspired by lectures from Roxby to pursue his own geographical career at the University of Liverpool and become involved with the GA in due course.

He was also mentioned by another GA President, Roger Carter in his Presidential address:

"I came across the details of the Staffordshire Geographical Exhibition of 1934. The Exhibition gave rise to an account, edited by Jasper H. Stembridge. Here is an extract from Stembridge's account:

 'The Staffordshire Geographical Exhibition proved that the popular press and the general public are deeply interested in education. On the second day the Exhibition was thronged. On the third and subsequent days it was so crowded in the afternoons and evenings that it was often difficult to make one's way round the rooms. Owing to requests received from all parts of the country it was decided to keep it open for a further three days' (Stembridge, 1934, p. 12). 

 The then President of the GA, Professor PM. Roxby, was equally enthusiastic about the event: 

'Here was the new geography - pulsating with life - presented with a freshness of outlook, but with a deep conviction of the importance of the subject and its underlying principles' (Roxby quoted in Stembridge, 1934, p. 13).

References

No Wikipedia entry exists. Perhaps one needs to be written.

There is an archive of his lectures and notes held at the University of Liverpool.
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F58505
https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/geography-and-planning/about/
https://www.nature.com/articles/159462a0
Lei ZHANG. Percy Maude Roxby and Chinese geography[J].Acta Geographica Sinica, 2015, 70(10): 1686-1693.

Available in Chinese it seems... anyone able to translate?

In May 2017, his centenary was announced in a Tweet from the Liverpool University account, including his portrait.

100 years ago today Percy Maude Roxby became the John Rankin Chair of Geography at @livuninews @livunigeog @livuniplanning @RGS_IBG #mayday pic.twitter.com/qqcb04pQTr

— livunigeog (@livunigeog) May 15, 2017

Roxby, Percy Maude. “CHINA AS AN ENTITY: THE COMPARISON WITH EUROPE. ADDRESS TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION.” Geography, vol. 19, no. 1, 1934, pp. 1–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40558758.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40563887?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents - details of Roxby Prize

Liverpool University Facebook page: https://d.facebook.com/livunigeog/photos/a.579114048787869/1640924519273478/?type=3&__tn__=EH-R

A prize winning essay from 1902 while studying at Christchurch, Oxford: https://archive.org/details/henrygrattanbein00roxb/page/n10

As always, if anyone knows anything more about Percy Maude Roxby, or has a contribution to make to the blog, please get in touch... 

Major update October 2019
Quite a lot of additional detail on Roxby and his work is included in an article by Professor H C Darby, who was also a Professor at Liverpool University. He talks first about the time following the First World War.



I like the idea of Roxby's long cycling tours, particularly in East Anglia and like to think that I have travelled along the same routes as Roxby. He wrote a chapter in a volume on Great Britain.
When searching for this book, I found this biographical reference in another book.



This told me the book was called 'Great Britain' and edited by A. Ogilvie (1928) and that he also contributed chapters to other publications. such as 'The Geographer's Craft'.

H C Darby then talked about the time when he succeeded Roxby at Liverpool University.



I also found an obituary of Roxby, which I hadn't found previously, written by H J Fleure.


References
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.


https://archive.org/details/henrygrattanbein00roxb/page/n10 - prize-winning essay

https://archive.org/details/chinaproper0002grea/page/n425 - China manual for naval intelligence - showing his great knowledge of the city

Crone, G. R. “British Geography in the Twentieth Century.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 130, no. 2, 1964, pp. 197–220. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1794582.

Fleure, H. J. “OBITUARY: PROFESSOR P. M. ROXBY.” Geography, vol. 32, no. 1, 1947, pp. 36–36. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562545.

CARTER, ROGER. “Connecting Geography: An Agenda for Action.” Geography, vol. 84, no. 4, 1999, pp. 289–297. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40573334. Accessed 22 Nov. 2020.

Update: December 2020

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. 

He lent me the letters and Dick Lawton mentioned the influence of Roxby and other geographers including Clifford Darby and Bill Mead on his own academic career at the time.

He says they taught him not only about geography, but how to be a geographer...

Upated July 2022

Roxby contributed to some guides to China written for military intelligence, found on the Internet Archive. Another wartime contribution by a former GA President.

Updated August 2023

As with many Geographers, Roxby was involved with the British Association's Section E committee meetings. He became the President in the 1930s and spoke about his work. He had many interests aside of his trips to China.

Finally found his Biogeographical volume description:

On his links with the GA it has this to say:

Updated June 2024

From 'The Geographer's Craft' by T.W. Freeman (1967) 

Available from the Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/geographerscraft0000free_h7z2/page/158/mode/2up?view=theater

A superb half chapter all about Roxby and his life and career.