Chris is delightful company and has been a member of many of the GA's overseas Study Tours over the years.
(another President with a link to the city) in 1946. He remembers bombsites still around in the city during his childhood. He told me about his education:
He enjoyed making models, and remembers a geography teacher called Mr. Alves who drew amazing chalk diagrams on the board, and also a neighbour who sent postcards from exotic overseas locations. While at school he won a prize and was able to choose a book, and chose 'Human Geography' by D C Money.
Failed 11+ (an early bi-lateral later to become comprehensive).
He was in the frst cohort to form a sixth form and the first to go to university (I think 5 of us)
He studied at the University of Exeter, for a BA in Geography.
Here, he came across the teaching of
Peter Toyne, who had come under the influence of Haggett and Chorley.
He describes himself as an 'outsider President' in that he was not from a geographical background, although he completed a geography degree at the University of Exeter.
One early previous outsider President was the author Hilaire Belloc, early in the 20th century, who has been previously featured here on the blog.
He started his Presidential address by saying: "I am not an academic. I am not a practising geographer. But I am a geography graduate and I have been involved in aspects of geographical education and with the GA for the best part of 30 years."
Chris's Presidential theme was "Valuing Geography", although he said it could just as easily be "Valuing Geographers".
His Presidential address was entitled:
"You can't judge a book by looking at the cover."
It is very well worth reading, as it goes through some of the changes in textbook publishing which those of us who have been teaching for a while will remember.
Chris himself says that it is about:
"...the wow factor in the classroom, the sparks that lit the fire in the young mind and the desire for concerned teachers (in particular) to win back control of the curriculum and the control of their professional lives in order they could realise the ambitions that took them into the classroom in the first place."
He mentions early texts such as Preece and Wood, and Rex Walford's book on School geography, before talking about his own publishing career and various encounters with geographers. He mentions a Bill Marsden book which he also loaned me: 'The School Textbook" (2001)
He also looked ahead to the future for publishing, which 19 years on has been proved to be quite prescient:
"the future knowledge economy will rapidly change our perception of how learning takes place as content is increasingly commoditised and contextualised and print and broadcast media merge together. This is the challenge for the government and for the Geographical Association too."
His Presidential address ends as follows:
"I am concerned that the children we teach better become not just better geographers, but better people as a result of studying geography".
He has worked with some famous geography authors, including Harry Robinson, who was Head of the Geography Department at Huddersfield Polytechnic just before I started my degree there in the early 1980s, D C Money - who I have mentioned in previous posts and Vincent Tidswell - my PGCE tutor at Hull University and someone else who I have blogged about previously. He also mentions Bill Chambers and Karl Donert working on a book together, and the involvement of Mary Biddulph: another former GA President.
Chris told me about his various roles within the GA, many of which I had been unaware of.
"I have kept my hand in throughout my working life with geography -
Trustee of Field Studies Council, a
Non Executive Director of the Ordnance Survey (both of whom subsequently became major supporters/strategic partners of the GA), and three stints of six years each on the GA Council."
In 1987(ish?)
Bryan Coates (who was then Honorary Treasurer, but later to be President himself) asked me to conduct the
Strategic Review of the GA which took three years to develop then two years to get through Council and a further five years to implement (a decade of work in total) - including the appointment of the new roles of
Chief Executive, Finance Director, setting up a proper publishing and marketing arm to the business and
a re-focus on (Continuing) Professional Development.
This moved the GA from being an organisation with many volunteers in key voluntary positions to a professional Association with salaried officers, and also brought Richard Gill and others into the GA story,
Thanks partly to the work of Chris Kington before his Presidency we have the GA as it currently stands, and which I helped all aspects of while working at Solly Street. Something that, looking back, I hadn't fully appreciated. Chris is also still active in the GA Cambridge Branch, and was chair for 5 years. He hosts events, and leads guided walks for members each year and also supports ITE students. This work will continue once we are able to move more freely again I am sure.
Chris is also one of the founding member of the Worldwise Quiz (along with Rex Walford, Mike Morrish, Ellie Rawling etc) - plenty more on those Presidents in their own blog entries of course as Former Presidents.
Chris still lives in Cambridge and I have met up with him several times in recent years. One of the great things that Chris did to help me with the blog project was to unearth a range of letters from former Presidents which he collected for his own Presidential years.
These explore the 'spark' which led to their initial interest in geography, and have been mentioned in the posts of a lot of recent Presidents.
Of his achievements he said:
I convened the Strategic Review which took 5 years to work through and to implement and a further 5 years to work throughout the system.
Broadly this advocated:
1) the move from an organisation run and managed by good hearted amateurs to one run by appropriately qualified professionals. Appoint a full time Chief Executive and a qualified Business Manager.
2) a focus on the increasing professional requirements of teachers as the nature of the subject, schools and exams changed.
3) the provision of high quality CPD and publications through all phases of schooling and teacher training.
4) the re-organisation of the entire GA to reflect these new demands whilst re-committing to a Branch structure.
5) asserting professionalism at all levels and the primacy of the Annual conference and its professional journals - something that remains very important.
6) anticipating technological innovation (mostly unspecified) and need to equip both teachers and students for a changed brave new dynamic world.
I last saw Chris at the FSC 75th Anniversary event at the Linnean Society in London just a few months ahead of the lockdown. Since the lockdown in March 2020, Chris has been treating his followers on Facebook to a daily poem. I'm looking forward to being able to return the letters and books that Chris loaned me in due course.
References
See Chris Kington publications - for sale by resellers and from other bookshops.
'Thinking through Geography 1 and 2' - David Leat, Adam Nichol et al
Also books with Fran Martin (former GA President) and Jeff Battersby
'Representing Geography' - Liz Taylor - still an important book and one I got a 2nd hand copy of recently so that I could reread a section for a project I was writing.
'Contemporary Approaches to Geography' - 2 volumes written by Charles Rawding
'Living Geography' - a number of authors with GA connections, including several GA Presidents - edited by David Mitchell
I also have a copy of 'Reading our Landscapes' by Charles Rawding which won a GA Silver Award
Image copyright:Bryan Ledgard and the GA (from Flickr account) at the 125th Anniversary event.
2nd image courtesy of Joseph Kerski
