Biographies of all the Presidents of the Geographical Association since the founding of the Association in 1893. Researched by Alan Parkinson (GA President 2021-22), with contributions from others, including the former Presidents themselves where possible.
My thanks to Hilary Bradley (nee Todd) for sending me some memories of her time as a GA Staff member.
My apologies also for not having posted them at the time as well. I rediscovered them when looking for something else recently.
I was a member of the GA staff, starting in September 1969 and leaving in spring of 1974 (cutting my ties with Sheffield).
I ran the library and information service, with support from the Hon Librarian Mr (Jim) Jay (we were so formal back then, I had to look up his first name!).
He was a lovely man and very supportive. I shared my office on the ground floor with the delightful Mrs (Mary) Ellis who was the editor of Geography.
My role also included editing assorted publications, including British landscapes through maps (series editor Professor KC Edwards of Nottingham University).
We would travel to the Peak District to discuss issues in some convivial pub or other!
I launched a new publication – Resources for geography - which would seem to still going strong in a new guise. And I shall not forget compiling the Dudley Stamp Memorial Index to Geography.
All the entries were hand-written on index cards which were then alphabetised by computer at the University. So revolutionary was this technology that we wrote an appendix to the index explaining how it was done! (I was taken to see the computer, my second encounter with one – it filled an entire room.)
343 Fulwood Road was a substantial Victorian or Edwardian mansion set in a large garden in a very upmarket suburb of Sheffield.
The Fleure Library took up most of the ground floor and the admin team worked upstairs.
My office had a wonderful outlook over the garden – it was an idyllic place to work in, if a little unreal. It was a real treat then to travel to London for regular meetings of the executive committee, usually held in a room at LSE or King's, and the annual conference. These were happy times – a sense of shared purpose, a passion for geography, many wonderful and inspiring people. I looked up to them all as demi-gods.
I need a bit more time to put together a cast list of who was involved at that time. Sheila Jones is the person I best remember. As President she was unique as she was a hands-on secondary school teacher ‘working at the chalk face’ as she put it in her presidential address (I still remember that much!).
All of her predecessors were in higher education I think. As most of our members were in secondary education, she must have been a real role model.
If this post has prompted some memories I'd love to hear from you.
I visited the archive in Solly Street last week and made some great discoveries.
I was able to access some letters from the personal collection of Hugh Robert Mill, received between 1893 and 1944. They were given to the GA in 2000 by Arthur Hunt, who received them from L J Jay's widow.
I came across a letter to Hugh Robert Mill from J S Masterman Esq. who was representing University College School at the first meeting of the GA in 1893.
As with several other early members, officers and Presidents of the GA, including Douglas Freshfield, they were involved with the Alpine Club.
This letter describes an ascent in the Alps. Masterman was staying in the Hotel Nesthorn in Lötschthal. This seems to have disappeared, as has the Schwarzegg Hut. This is in the area close to the Eiger and other classic peaks including the Jungfrau, which Masterman climbed. He also climbed the Finteraarhorn and the Schreckhorn - both impressive peaks with aretes and other glacial scenery. There is also description of glaciers and moraines.
John also mentions that his own tutor was Jim Jay, so I asked him to tell me a little bit about him, and this is what John sent me:
He was a lovely man. He interviewed me for a place at Sheffield University for the geography education course. I’m not entirely sure how he assessed me as being suitable for the course and indeed as a teacher. As I recall he did most of the talking. Obviously he was sharp ... and perceptive.
'Geography teaching with a little Latitude' is a wonderful book and somehow expressed all that made him a high quality tutor. It’s packed full of practical ideas, challenges the reader to think about their own practice and how to improve, yet all the while being served up with his gentle humour. I’ve still got it. Chapter four on image and reality could be used very effectively for perception of place today.
He invited us all for tea with his wife at his house in Dore and we had a wonderful time. He had the ability to make people feel rather special. He certainly made us evaluate the what and why of our planning. An all round excellent teacher trainer.
Michael Wise was 58 when he became the GA President, and working at the University of Birmingham. He is one of the most interesting and influential of all the GA's former Presidents, and has had one of the biggest impacts on geography with his varied connections and outputs.
He was born in 1918, and was brought up in Birmingham, and later linked with the University of Birmingham during his career. He went to school with L J Jay (Leslie Jay), who worked as the Honorary Librarian of the GA from 1954 to 1973 (see previous post)
Here is a paragraph from the appreciation of L J Jay that Michael wrote following Jay's death in 1986.
In it, he describes the influence of the geography teacher they both had while they were at the same school as pupils.
This is always worth remembering: the improving power of taking part in the community of practice that is the GA.
Michael was Programme Secretary to the IGC and was one of the IGU Presidents as well - this international work is important, and is continuing to this day. David Lambert certainly led a great deal of international work within the GA, and Alan Kinder and Becky Kitchen continue to work in other countries to develop their curricula, as well as another former President Margaret Roberts who has worked extensively in Singapore to develop their school geography.
Michael served on various Government commissions and committees (which would have contributed to the Policy work of the GA, something that continues to this day at that level). The connection with policy work is something that I have got increasingly involved in during the first year on the GA's Presidents Group as it is currently called. This has included consultations with OFQUAL, who are currently not getting particularly good press for their judgement over this year's exam results.
There is a Michael Wise room in the Geography department at LSE. This was renamed some years after his death. Some memories of him here.
One particular contribution Michael made was as a member of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) during the late 70s and early 80s. One of the things that he did while there was to establish a Fellowship. One person who got the fellowship turned out to be Doreen Massey, who became one of the most influential geographers in recent decades, and also a former Honorary Vice President of the GA. (Doreen will have a post on the blog in due course)
His Presidential Address was called 'Geography in Universities and Schools. It tackled the issue that we still talk about today - the possible disconnect between school and university geography. It is worth reading, using the link at the bottom of the post.
He was interviewed in this film here, which provides a little more background to his interests, and makes him another rare President to appear on video until much closer to the present day:
Interview with Professor Michael Wise, Former President of the International Geographical Union, London School of Economics and Political Science. Interviewed by Anne Buttimer.
Michael also served as a member and President of many learned societies and was one of only two UK academics to have been President of all three UK geographical societies - the Royal Geographical Society, the Geographical Association and the Institute of British Geographers - as well as the International Geographical Union. He received the RGS Gill Memorial award in 1958 and Founder’s Medal in 1977, among many awards, and received the CBE in 1979.
(from the BBC obituary) At his 90th birthday party, held at the LSE, according to the lengthy Independent obituary: He read from a primary school essay that he wrote: “My favourite lesson is geography. I will tell you why. It is because it teaches me all about the world and all the things upon it.”
Michael was featured in a volume of Biographical Studies.
He wrote a chapter in a book that I have a copy of called 'Geographical Futures', and this paragraph is taken from that
Michael was mentioned by several former Presidents whom I was able to contact.
For example, Chris Kington very kindly lent me a copy of a journal piece that Michal wrote with his memories around becoming a geographer. Wise, M. J. (2001). Becoming a geographer around the second world war. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), 112–121. https://doi.org/10.1177/030913250102500112
This described some of his early geographical adventures.
I've previously mentioned a quote from this article which describes how he came across a book by H J Fleure.
He recalls being on active service in the Middle East, and the great pleasure he had in Baghdad in 1942 which came from "finding a copy of Fleure's Introduction to Geography (1929) and the poignancy struck at this time by his concluding words: 'the lives of men are bound up with the little bit of earth that is given to each to love, and the student of geography must set himself to understand the links that bind him there, and not only there, but also the very different ones that bind him and his fellow men in all lands' (p.79)
Wise was a doughty campaigner for geography throughout the educational system, doing
much work behind the scenes, in committees and other fora, as well as publishing papers
such as that advocating geography’s role in technical education (1961a) which advanced his
wider claim that geographers should (p.348): "base our arguments not on the side-door entry of geography as a general
education for citizenship, and as a background subject but, through the front
entrance, on geography as a disciplined, practical study with its own
techniques and tools directly applicable to the problems and tasks of the day.
… Let us make geography a subject which does things, not merely one which
reads about other people doing them."
And he wanted action to ensure that happened.
A few years later, in his presidential address
to the GA, he called for it to ‘involve itself more actively than it has done in the recent past in
debate on educational matters’ (1977b, 249) in an ‘aggressive defence of our subject and its
approaches’ (p.256).
He noted that the discipline was changing rapidly in universities and
wanted this recognised in schools, despite their need to cater not just for university entrants
but also to ‘many groups of pupils with different ambitions, plans, and values’ (p.233). Steel
(1983, 40 and 112) reports in his history of the IBG that Wise facilitated constructive
engagement between the RGS and IBG councils in 1981, leading to the establishment of a
Council of British Geographers (the two societies merged a decade later), and was
instrumental in a far-reaching restructuring of the British National Committee for Geography,
the body that, through the Royal Society, was responsible until 1990 for British geography’s
links to international bodies such as the International Geographical Union and the
International Cartographic Association (Anon. 1970; Geographical Journal 156, 1990, 350).
Larger plans for a Council of British Geography, initiated by the GA, were unsuccessful then,
and although a council was established a few years later it has not played a major role, having
last met in November 2012 (http://www.cobrig.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016)).
During his
RGS presidency Wise was also involved in the discussions that led to the establishment of the
Association of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences, later the Academy of Learned
Societies for the Social Sciences (http://www.the-academy.org.uk/ (accessed 20 May 2016).
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
This is a useful document and have referred to this several times during the writing of this blog.
Michael was made an Honorary Member of the GA in 1980.
Michael sadly died in 2015, aged 97 - another former GA President to have approached 100 years of age.
Address: WISE, M. J. “Geography in Universities and Schools.” Geography, vol. 62, no. 4, 1977, pp. 249–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568785
Wise, Michael. “The Campaign for Geography in Education: The Work of the Geographical Association 1893–1993.” Geography, vol. 78, no. 2, 1993, pp. 101–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572491
I studied under Michael Wise 1957-60 and have the warmest memories of his teaching and his personal kindness. We found we were fellow residents of Finchley. I recall going to his inaugural lecture when he got his chair. His enthusiasm for human geography rubbed off on me and with his encouragement I became a town planner. In the 90s I met him once or twice when I was in LSE for BSPS meetings and he was the same as ever. Another nice memory was a field course in his original home ground of the Midlands: a gaggle of us were in an old quarry near Dudley and a small boy was eyeing us questioningly. Far from ignoring him, Michael greeted him with “Hello, our kid”. It’s the little things that you remember!
Update October 2020
He is remembered fondly by Richard Daugherty, who sent me a copy of a letter he received from Michael following the successful launch of 'Teaching Geography' journal which he helped make a case for. It was characteristic of him to thank people in this way when they did work for the GA, something that I hope Presidents have been getting better at in recent years.
Update November 2020
He was also fondly remembered by Denys Brunsden who told me:
The most influential President in my time was Michael Wise (also a fabulous Treasurer), before that S.W.Wooldridge was a monumental presence and Dudley Stamp put the GA on a sound financial course especially with his advice to Michael and in many 'hidden' ways.
Those who were at Juniper Hall will remember the final evening’s entertainment of Wise on the piano and Wooldridge rendering songs by Gilbert and Sullivan.
Although he was instrumental in setting up seminars and courses for graduate students, his teaching was to undergraduates both in the Joint School and inter-collegiately for some special options. He continued Stamp’s interest in Applied Geography - his involvement in regional planning shifted from the West Midlands where it was honed, to London and the South East.
Those who still remember the closure of LSE in 1969 and the highly charged political atmosphere will recall LSE’s finding room to continue teaching in Kings and temporary LSE Geography HQ in The Surrey, a pub then in Surrey Street. His military service during World War II, when he gained the Military Cross in Italy, was adapted to the organisation of field courses and handling student humour. Cooperation with colleagues applied across the range of courses, as I discovered when I returned as Lecturer. His door was “open” in the sense that he made time for us and students.
We remember a long list of faithful secretaries whom he cared about, as well as other technical staff at LSE. Even when he was Pro-Director after his “retirement” in 1983 he eagerly agreed to promote students’ suggestion for a new electric locomotive on the West Coast line to be named London School of Economics. This was duly performed by Sir Huw Wheldon, LSE’s chairman of governors. in 1985. One of his last visits to LSE was to witness the unveiling of the conserved name plate in the George IV pub, now a part of LSE in February 2008.
Michael Wise’s involvement in many of the School’s committees and those of the University was always in favour of student welfare, mostly academic. He was adept at garnering allies to achieve his aims. He supported staff and student when needed. Michael also remembered old students, retired staff not only academic or geographical, knowing their individual circumstances often to our surprise. Largely by his efforts he organised and ran for a long time the Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust in memory of his former colleague. This benefitted from his contacts and powers of persuasion, such that funds are still available, through our links with the Royal Geographical Society, for scholars registered at UK universities.
He saw his career as one to serve others, following his mentor R.H.Kinvig at Birmingham.
Michael Wise was only the second geographer to preside over all three main learned geographical societies.
His work on the Departmental Committee on Smallholdings and the Ministry of Transport’s Advisory Committee on Landscape Treatment was recognised in the appointment of CBE in 1979. Internationally his work for the 1964 International Geographical Congress in London led to the IGU presidency and many international honours.
At the centre of his life were his family – his wife Barbara, who died in 2007, daughter and son, five grand-children and four great-grand-children to whom he was devoted. An obituary was published in The Independent on 13 January 2016.
Ron Johnston and I would welcome any recollections any members may like to share.
Michael’s first and last published research papers (1948b, 1977) were on the teaching of geography.
As a trained teacher, he placed great store on how geography was taught, as reflected in his commitment to the work of the Geographical Association (GA), and his presidential addresses to that body, the Institute of British Geographers (IBG), and the RGS. To the RGS in 1981 and 1982 he took the opportunity to promote geography as the ‘rewarding study of the rich mosaic of life and landscape’ (Wise 1982, 307).
The GA, established by Mackinder and others in 1893 at the height of the crusade, continued the campaign over the next century, celebrated by Wise at its centenary (Wise 1993). He contributed substantially to those campaigns, as in his membership of a committee that considered the overlap between geography in school sixthforms and university first years (GA 1962).
"Geographers should base our arguments not on the side-door entry of geography as a general education for citizenship, and as a background subject but, through the front entrance, on geography as a disciplined, practical study with its own techniques and tools directly applicable to the problems and tasks of the day. … Let us make geography a subject which does things, not merely one which reads about other people doing them. "
He was Treasurer of the GA from 1967 to 1976, and its President from 1976 to 1977, and was President of the IBG in 1974, having previously served on its council and then as a Vice President; he was made an Honorary Member in 1989. He gave much time to all of these posts, taking good care of their resources and dispensing much quiet and sage advice, as he did also to the Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust, established after the 1964 London International Geographical Congress to provide grants to young scholars; he was its Secretary from 1966 to 1988, and then its Chair until 2005 (when he was made its honorary President).
He was also the founding President of the Transport Studies Society and for ten years (1973–1984) chaired the Executive Committee of the Association of Agriculture and, although he held no office, he was much involved, as his unpublished 1992 paper shows, in the negotiations that led to the establishment of the Regional Studies Association.
Interesting given the news about Alan Kinder's new job for 2024.
Updated July 2024
Bibliographical Studies of Geographer volumes - this one can be partly read on Google Books.
He did so much in his lifetime! A remarkable contribution to geography.
I posted earlier in the week about L J Jay, who worked as the former GA librarian, and who wrote a great many reviews and contributions to 'Geography' - his initials were repeated many times in the journals across the decades. This has been substantially brought up to date with some new information from my former colleague at Solly Street: Frances Soar.
As we get nearer to the present day, you will see further contributions with a credit for the contributions of Frances Soar. She has very kindly offered to help with some updates as we get closer to her own time working at Solly Street.
Frances found a lot more information about L J Jay. Sometimes known as 'Jim' Jay.
Leslie Joseph Jay, born 25 Aug 1917 in Aston, Warks. Parents Joseph Jay, described in 1939 as 'Inspector Engineering', and Martha (nee Green).
1936: Successful in the First Examination, Geography Dept, University of Birmingham (B'ham Daily Gazette, 2 Feb 1936)
1938: Awarded Geography Degree (II2) by the University of Birmingham (B'ham Daily Gazette, 30 Jun 1938)
1939: Passed the written examination for the Degree of MA (Birmingham Daily Post, 29 Jun 1939)
1939: Living with his parents at 58 Caldwell Road, Birmingham. Described as 'student, intending te[indistinct]'. Possibly 'teacher' (From the WW2 Register, 1939)
1943 (25 Jan): Royal Navy 'Schoolmaster Candidate (entered for Hostilities only)' (Navy Lists for 1943ff). Served at HMS Nabsford, a base in Australia for Royal Naval Aircraft maintenance. [I've learnt more about RN ranks in the past hour than I ever thought I would need to know!]
1943: (4th quarter) Married Hilda Seal in Birmingham
1949: Awarded Master of Arts by University of Birmingham (Birmingham Daily Gazette, 30 Jun 1949)
1986 (24 Jan): Died Sheffield, having been living at 14 Overglade Gardens, Dore, Sheffield, leaving wife Hilda and children Heather and Paul
He served in Australia during the war. While in Australia, he used his 'schoolmasterly' skills to edit and create a newsletter called Nabsford News.
The newsletters make entertaining reading if you take a look - lots of in-jokes for sure.
The newsletter copies were provided by L J Jay's son Paul.
29th April 1945: "The J6 Crowd" L to R: back row: Lt. (S) George Baker RNVR, Lt. Ted Folkard RNVR, Lt. (Sp. Br.) Bill Grant RNVR, Sub-Lt (A) Peter Bearcroft RNVR. Front row: Schoolmaster Jim Jay, Sub-Lt (A) I.Thomas RNVR, Sub-Lt (A) J. Pinch RNVR, Commissioned Store Officer Reg Goodhue.
An appreciation of L J Jay was printed in 'Geography' in 1986, written by former GA President Michael Wise. It turns out that he went to school with Michael Wise. There is a good mention of his geography teacher Mr. Cotton and also a mention for R H Kinvig
He wrote a humorous book on geography teaching called 'Geography teaching with a little latitude' which I've seen before, and was published in 1981. In it he said:
"there is a ample scope for... an element of humour in the teaching of geography".
He taught at Wellingborough School apparently after the war before joining the University of Sheffield.
He joined the GA in 1943 and joined as Honorary Librarian in 1954. He stayed with the GA until 1973, also serving on the Council and Executive Committee. He was involved in the transfer of the library from Duke Street to Fulwood Road. He compiled the Dudley Stamp Index of 'Geography' articles with Hilary Todd.
He classified the work of Herbertson and wrote an appreciation of his work which I have previously added to the blog.
Before retirement he oversaw the transfer of the Fleure library to the University of Sheffield. A manuscript for a booklet for the GA called 'Starting to teach Geography' was completed just before his death.
The appreciation by Michael Wise ends with these two paragraphs:
One sentence there is a reminder for all teachers:
"he knew that gifts as a teacher were not sufficient without a continuous replenishment of the mind, without experimentation in method, without respect for pupils..."
Source:
Wise, M. J. “The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 71, no. 2, 1986, pp. 169–172. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571093. Accessed 31 July 2020.
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. Accessed 1 Aug. 2020.
L J Jay's initials can be seen in numerous documents, reviews, minutes and reports in 'Geography' spanning several decades.
He was the GA's Librarian in the 1950s and 60s and was also a lecturer in the Department of Education at the University of Sheffield. He also contributed to the special Centenary issue on A J Herbertson He was another of those unsung heroes of the Association who did so much over many years. Trying to find an image of him but failed...
References Pieces include:
JAY, L. J. “Experimental Work in School Geography.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 3, 1960, pp. 205–213. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565160
JAY, L. J. “The Herbertson Memorial Lectures.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 371–372. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565963. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020. If anyone has further information on L. J. Jay it would be gratefully received. More information is going to be coming in an updated post in a day or so, with thanks to Frances Soar.
A report of a discussion on teacher training was published in Geography in 1960.
I liked this section:
Given the growing number of entry points into teaching and different pathways and providers I wonder whether this would be possible today.
References
Jay, L. J. “The Training of Geographers. Report of a Discussion on Specialization in the Training of Geographers and the Teaching of Geography in Schools.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 1/2, 1960, pp. 120–122. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565119
"The geographer who is concerned with transmitting part of his knowlege to children in school, and concurrently with fostering in them certain desirable attitudes, must necessarily devote considerable thought to the presentation of his material. Unlike his counterpart in a university, the teacher in school has study methods almost as much as subject-matter, and for this reason he is usually interested in the experiences of other teachers which may assist him in the task.
One of the leading functions of the Geographical Association since its inception has been to serve as a medium for the exchange of this information".
Source"
JAY, L. J. “Experimental Work in School Geography.” Geography, vol. 45, no. 3, 1960, pp. 205–213. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565160
