EDINA opens up Digimap for Schools to 1 million more pupils

A press release from the Ordnance Survey.

I've worked with Ordnance Survey and EDINA for many years.

Ordnance Survey (OS) will reach out to 1,800 primary and secondary schools serving some of the most deprived areas of Great Britain to offer a free education resource for the teaching of geography.

Digimap for Schools was launched just over 15 years ago in partnership between OS and EDINA, at The University of Edinburgh. It is a flagship digital platform that provides interactive mapping tools for the teaching of geography, and other core education areas, in primary and secondary schools. It helps pupils and teachers develop digital and data skills, and explore modern and historical maps as well as aerial imagery. 

Around one-sixth of schools in England - more than 18 million pupils - have used the service since 2020.

The new offer means Digimap for Schools will reach more than one million schoolchildren in the most deprived areas across Britain, alongside three million who currently have access to the service. A programme of training will also be offered to educators, alongside the development of a new network of practising teachers to provide effective teaching support.

Free access to Digimap for Schools was previously sponsored by the government for schools rated Ofsted 3 or 4. This year, the eligibility criteria has been widened to include 1,800 schools in the lowest 8% of deprived areas in England and, for the first time, in Scotland and Wales. This will include cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, and Glasgow. 

The new offer has been secured by Government Digital Service, under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement.

"It is fundamental that we support the effective teaching of geography in schools, building confidence when using interactive mapping tools, and fostering critical technical skills to grow our future geographers. We are delighted to announce the extension of Digimap for Schools to those with the greatest need in England, Scotland, and Wales. We encourage headteachers to take advantage of this offer and introduce Digimap for Schools into their classrooms this year."

Nick Bolton, Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey

© Crown copyright and database rights. Ordnance Survey 2026
Secondary school pupils working with Digimap for Schools

“Geography plays an important role in helping young people understand the world around them. Our members tell us that digital tools like Digimap for Schools are invaluable for geography teachers to enrich the curriculum learning experience and put data analysis directly into the hands of pupils. We welcome this initiative for schools in deprived areas, as well as the expansion into Scotland and Wales, and encourage all eligible schools to sign-up."

Steve Brace, Chief Executive of the Geographical Association

Digimap for Schools is aligned with the national curricula across Great Britain and enables students aged five to 16 and above to understand and investigate their world while gaining crucial digital and data skills. It is supported by access to a huge library of free learning resources, also available in Welsh, that are designed to aid teaching and support teachers in preparing impactful and interesting lessons, as well as allowing for student-led self-study. 

OS recently published an impact report on its commitment to lifelong learning in geography and geospatial. It also collaborates closely with organisations such as the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association on a wide range of activities including the teaching of geography in schools, educational outcomes, and promoting geography.

Headteachers of eligible schools will be directly contacted about the new offer in the next month. For further information about the Digimap for Schools free access scheme visit: https://digimapforschools.edina.ac.uk/about/imd/.

Meaningful Maps in the Primary Classroom

I presented at a GA Primary Teachmeet yesterday, hosted by GA President Hina Robinson on the importance of maps in the Primary classroom.

My presentation is here.

Thanks to those who presented and attended. A recording will be placed on the GA's YouTube channel in a short while. 

Dudley Stamp's maps revisited

Thanks to Steve Brace for the link to a new research project making use of Dudley Stamp's Land Utilisation Survey UK project.

We scanned Dudley Stamp maps & compared them with modern satellite data to record the extent of land-use change across Britain in mid-20thC. Our map outlines land conversion for every 10km x 10km sq. @andysuggitt & @AGAuffret#geographyteachers #NEA https://t.co/UIEk3Sw9Lj

— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) November 5, 2023

The full piece in 'The Conversation' explores a new project. 

Our answer was to use the detailed maps that a huge army of volunteer citizen scientists (many were schoolchildren!) collected under the leadership of Sir Dudley Stamp in the 1930s/40s. His team visited every county of Britain, noting down the land-use of the time... 🗺️(3/17). pic.twitter.com/2PVljhHbA2

— Andy Suggitt (@andysuggitt) November 1, 2023

The outcomes are reported in this research paper. (Open Access at the time of posting).

We estimate that roughly 90% of lowland meadow and pasture has been lost. Land was converted either to arable farmland, which saw a 22% increase, or to agriculturally improved grassland, which now occupies 27% of Britain’s land area.

Urbanisation saw the nation’s built area expand from 4% to 5%. And woodland cover doubled from 6% to 12%, largely due to a concerted effort to increase the country’s reserve of timber. For better or worse, the nation’s land use became less mixed and more consolidated.

All of this environmental change is thought to have had a profound effect on biodiversity. According to the recent State of Nature Report, the abundance of UK species has declined by an average of 19% since 1970. Some 1,500 species (or 16% of those analysed) are now threatened with national extinction.

The full piece outlines further changes affecting particular species.

All the maps are available for free download.

Our answer was to use the detailed maps that a huge army of volunteer citizen scientists (many were schoolchildren!) collected under the leadership of Sir Dudley Stamp in the 1930s/40s. His team visited every county of Britain, noting down the land-use of the time... 🗺️(3/17). pic.twitter.com/2PVljhHbA2

— Andy Suggitt (@andysuggitt) November 1, 2023

A Modern Domesday Book: the Land Utilisation Survey of Dudley Stamp

A website section on the LSE website which appeared in June 2023.

It's written by Anna Towlson to go with an exhibition of mapping earlier in the year (which I missed completely). She works at the LSE.

A reminder that Dudley Stamp was GA President in 1950, well after he started work on the survey. He was also a million selling textbook author.

It outlines the background to the survey:

Sir Dudley Stamp’s aim was to undertake a detailed field-by-field survey of England, Wales and Scotland to find out exactly what the surface of the land was being used for. The idea grew out of his work as Chairman of the Regional Studies Committee of the Geographical Association in the late 1920s. British agriculture had been facing a long and severe depression, mainly because of the increase in world food supplies and competition from cheaper producers. Many towns and cities had been growing at a steady rate since the industrial revolution, with low profits and low wages in the countryside speeding the drift of labour from the land.

Stamp envisaged the Survey as acting as, in his phrase, a “modern Domesday Book”. This comparison caused some confusion at the time, in that it led some people to think that the Survey was part of a large tax-gathering exercise. But in many ways it is very apt: it was a comprehensive national survey that was designed to be of contemporary use as an administrative tool, but it also formed a permanent record of the country’s landscape at a particular time, something that is now of enormous historical value.

Stamp envisaged that much of the field work would be done by volunteers, mainly children from local schools and colleges. He also saw the project as a national educational exercise, an opportunity to interest young people in their local environment, to develop their observational and map reading skills, and to give them what Stamp called “a training in citizenship”, with each region playing its part in a nationwide scheme.

Few people had the profile and the force of will of Stamp to pull off such an ambitious project.

In autumn 1930 he contacted the directors of education in counties across the whole of Britain to explain the project and ask them to coordinate work in their areas. He then spent the next year touring the country to talk to head teachers and education committees and taking out parties to demonstrate field work methods. He estimated that in this first year he covered almost 2,000 miles a month, with his wife acting as chauffeur. By mid-1931, the Survey was underway in most counties in England, and by early 1932 in Wales and Scotland also.

Consider these statistics:

Stamp estimated that there were about 20,000 sheets to cover, with each sheet taking two to three days to complete. Field surveying started in October 1930, but most of the work was done between 1931 and 1934. During this period Stamp continued to tour the country extensively, meeting with local officials and offering encouragement to field workers. The Survey also issued regular bulletins to the volunteers to keep them informed on the progress of the project as a whole and to clarify questions or problems with the surveying.

By January 1932 some 400 sheets had been returned, and by January 1934 this had risen to over 15,000. The bulk of the fieldwork was finished by the end of 1935, with a flying squad of surveyors, mainly geography students or former geography students from London University, finishing off remoter areas that local volunteers could not cover. This stage of the project was clearly an enormous undertaking and by the end Stamp estimated that it had involved about a quarter of a million school children, as well as teachers and other adults.

Source of text: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsehistory/2023/06/09/a-modern-domesday-book/

One of the key people in the survey, and much forgotten is Eunice Wilson.

She is pictured in the blog post.

Eunice Biki Wilson, 1984. IMAGELIBRARY/755. LSE.

She started at the LSE as a cartographic assistant on the LUS. It was an interesting post that soon absorbed her talent and imagination and she rapidly developed skills that made her a pioneer of cartographic illustration. As new applications were found for the LUS in the field of land use planning, and as its work intensified, Biki eventually found herself as Chief Cartographer in charge of a new drawing office attached to the Land Use Division of Ministry of Agriculture

The survey results proved their value during and after the Second World War.

NLS has maps of Scotland and elsewhere.

The very last area to be surveyed was part of the Isle of Arran in September 1941, although all other areas were recorded by 1939. The surveys were extensively cross-checked by the team, even including Stamp with his wife as chauffeur: ‘I must have covered thousands of miles myself, often standing up on the front seat of my car with my head through the sunshine roof and a roll of six-inch maps in front of me’ (Stamp, 1948). The maps were also cross-checked with adjacent sheets when reduced to the one-inch scale.

Here's the map that features my village in Norfolk

https://maps.nls.uk/view/241043320

Key: http://geo.nls.uk/mapdata2/land_uti/key/openlayers.html

Sources:

Stamp L.D. (1931). 'The Land Utilization Survey of Britain'. The Geographical Journal, 78, 40-47.

Stamp L.D. (1948, with later editions in 1950 and 1962). The Land of Britain: its use and misuse (Longman, London).

Dr Edward Christie Willatts OBE

Another unsung hero, linked with the work of Dudley Stamp and the Land Utilisation Survey but a great deal more besides.

Image from the 1930s. Could that be Edna Green too?

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lselibrary/3983645366/in/photolist-752dYN

Edward Christie Willatts, geographer and cartographer, born July 4 1908; died January 8 2000

Christie Willatts, who has died aged 91, was recruited by the wartime government to run a geographic information system in the days before the term itself was invented. He was well qualified to do so. He had been the organising force behind Britain's first land utilisation survey. From 1941, until his retirement in 1973, he used his energy, unrivalled knowledge and skill as a presenter of geographical facts, to help planners and decision-makers across Whitehall do their job better.

Professor Dudley Stamp recruited him to run the survey he had conceived of land-use across Great Britain. Willatts recruited and enthused thousands of volunteers, writing their instructions, supplying their maps, and then checking the results. 

He did this by travelling the country by motorcycle and sidecar with fellow geographer Edna Green, whom he married in 1937. 

When the government requisitioned the survey offices at LSE, he commandeered a barrow to wheel all the maps and records to Bacon's, their printers in nearby Fetter Lane. When these were blitzed, Willatts set up a drawing office in his own home.

The Royal Geographical Society awarded him the Gill Memorial in 1950 for research, and he was appointed an OBE in 1958. He helped to found, and later became an honorary member, of the British Cartographic Society.

Source:

Obituary from 2000: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/mar/17/guardianobituaries4

He also helped J A Steers with his survey of the coastline of England and Wales.

His Obituary in 'Geography' was written by GA President Professor Michael Wise

Willatts had trained as a teacher 1930-31 and, at a time when good teaching posts were difficult to find, had received an attractive offer from Hulme Grammar School, Manchester. As he was already undertaking fieldwork for the LUS in Surrey, Willatts seized the new opportunity offered by Stamp for a year at an annual salary of £200. The decision brought great good fortune to the LUS. Willatts' work involved visiting education officers to win support, recruiting schools and student volunteers to undertake the field work, writing and publishing leaflets and instructions, supplying the six inches to the mile quarter sheets, collating and analysing the completed sheets, arranging the publication of the one-inch maps and, later, the production of the County Reports.

Source:

“Dr E.C ‘Christie’ Willatts, OBE 1908-2000: An Obituary.” Geography, vol. 85, no. 2, 2000, pp. 166–166. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40573410. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.

E. C. Willatts (1946) "Some Geographical Factors in the Palestine Problem" The Geographical Journal,Vol. 108, No. 4/6 (Oct. - Dec., 1946), pp. 146-173 (32 pages)
J. R. James, Sheila F. Scott, E. C. Willatts (1961) "Land Use and the Changing Power Industry in England and Wales", The Geographical Journal, Vol. 127, No. 3 (Sep., 1961), pp. 286-309
E. C. Willatts (1971) "Planning and Geography in the Last Three Decades" The Geographical Journal, Sep., 1971, Vol. 137, No. 3 (Sep., 1971), pp. 311-330

Other references:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fresearchportal.port.ac.uk%2Ffiles%2F178033%2FSoddy_Report_Land_Use_Surveys.pdf&psig=AOvVaw0Rdpo2-DtdvBHYJlVZHFcw&ust=1694970764136000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBAQjhxqFwoTCNCp46fSr4EDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAP

A piece in the BCS journal:

Christie Willatts inspired and helped to train almost an entire generation of cartographers at a time when there were no formal qualifications in the subject outside geography and surveying. Forced on him by the wartime situation he recruited many young women some straight from school and who count themselves fortunate to have had such a teacher. Having begun his postgraduate career by training as a teacher and having held parttime university teaching posts at LSE and Birkbeck College in London, his role became one of combining research with trainingwithin the Civil Service. His national contribution lay (with Dudley Stamp) in the completion of the aims of the LUS, then of laying the groundwork for a national atlas and lastly of raising the profile of geographical cartography in Britain, with decisionmakers and national institutions.

David R Wright

Not a GA President, but someone bound up with the work of the Association in many ways is David R Wright. He produced a series of best selling map books and atlases, and also worked as a PGCE tutor at the University of East Anglia, which was where I first met him in the early 90s. As you can see from the article below, he was also another geographer associated with St Catharine' College (and always remember to spell that with an 'a' by the way...) and to have Gus Caesar as a tutor. Gus was very much connected with a whole range of former GA Presidents including Margaret Roberts.



He contributed to a range of GA publications and articles, always on the theme of mapping.

The last time I saw David was at the Royal Geographical Society in 2008. He was receiving an award, as was I. He was unwell at the time, and sadly died the year after.

The following text and the accompanying image are copyright RGS-IBG

David Wright, who died on 20 November 2009 after a battle with cancer, was a geographer and author whose work inspired children around the world.

David graduated from Cambridge University and then trained as a teacher, undertaking an MA in Geography in Education from London University, Institute of Education. He taught in Stevenage and Pittsburgh before moving to Norfolk in 1969 as a lecturer in Geography at Keswick Hall College of Education, which was later merged with the University of East Anglia, where he worked for 12 years. He took early retirement in 1994 to further his research and writing, becoming a self-employed author, school inspector, adviser and consultant.

Throughout his career David was a champion of the use of equal area maps in teaching and in publications of all types and his (W)Right World Map was launched in 2007. He also advocated the use of stamps in engaging young people with an interest in places and examples of a virtual journey using stamps can be found on Discovering the Arctic 

I have this pencilled in for an activity in my new KS2 Schemes which I am developing with colleagues in a unit called 66 North.

Throughout his career David’s concern has been to stimulate children’s interest in the world by creating pupil-orientated approaches to teaching geography and innovative ways of linking geography, environmental and sustainable development education, all rooted in his experiences of many different parts of the world.

David was a past chairman and president of the Norfolk branch of the Geographical Association and his contribution to geographical education was acknowledged in 2007 when he was awarded the accreditation of ‘Chartered Geographer’ by RGS-IBG. In 2008 he was awarded the ‘Ness Award’ by RGS-IBG for his work championing the wider understanding and popularisation of geography through his work with children.

David's obituary on behalf of the Geographical Association was written by Margaret Roberts and published in 'Geography'. It has often been the job of GA Presidents to have that sad duty.

David also wrote a book in the GA-published series 'Theory into Practice'.

It was called 'Maps with Latitude'

Reference
https://www.geog.cam.ac.uk/alumni/landmark/1/landmark1.pdf - p10

Obituary: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00167487.2010.12094301

RGS-IBG Obituary: https://www.rgs.org/geography/news/david-wright-(1939-2009)/

As always, if anyone has memories of David please get in touch, or add a comment. Many people will have used his work and books I am sure.

G Malcolm Lewis

G Malcolm Lewis was mentioned by Richard Daugherty, as sharing the role of Honorary Secretary with him during the 1970s.

He also co-wrote some of the books in the British Landscapes through Maps series, along with others, including one on the Doncaster area that he co-wrote with another former GA President Bryan Coates.

He co-wrote "Geography Beyond A-level: A Student's Guide" for the GA in 1985.

I believe he was an expert in cartography, including that of the Plains Indians and other indigenous peoples. He wrote on Maps of the Americas for the Annals of the Association of American Geographers, and through this article, I discovered he was associated with the University of Sheffield.

From a volume on cartography that he co-edited with Professor David Woodward, it seems he was a Reader in Geography at the University of Sheffield until his retirement.

From this source: https://geography.wisc.edu/histcart/editors/

Mr. Lewis has received numerous awards and fellowships for research interests that include the historical perception of landscape, Native American mapping, and cartographic communication. 

He currently resides in Sheffield, England.

References

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00180.x - AAG article

https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/HOC_V2_B3/HOC_VOLUME2_Book3_frontmatter.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23531157?seq=1 - Plains Indians mapping

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03098268208708851?journalCode=cjgh20

1985: A world turned upside down

In 1985, the Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath Ramphal delivered this joint GA/RGS/IBG lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on the 10th April 1985. This was Pat Cleverley's conference and she sent me a copy of the conference programme as well, which has appeared on another post on the blog.

He was also known as Sonny Ramphal.

This event was one of the first introductions for many to the Peters projection rather than Mercator, and he called on geographers to help people see the world in the round. I remember starting to see a Peters map around this time, and bought one when I first started teaching. Radical geography!

This was one of the highlights of that year's conference for many according to reports, and he was a high profile guest of the conference that year.

Reference

Ramphal, Shridath S. “A World Turned Upside Down.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 3, 1985, pp. 193–205. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570953. Accessed 26 Sept. 2020.

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.

1927: Colonel Sir Charles Close KBE CB CMG FRS (later Arden Close)

Updated August 2023

Colonel Charles Close was a Geographer and Surveyor, and the GA had somebody as President, for the first time in a while, who could be said to be a Geographer both at heart, and in occupation.

Charles (Arden) Close served as Director General of the Ordnance Survey from 1911 to 1922.

(10 August 1865 – 19 December 1952) 

There are several biographies of him online, which provide plenty more detail on his achievements, and the way that he prepared the OS for the demands of the First World War, which were particular impressive and showed his attention to detail:
Biography here.
A detailed biography here (PDF download)

Amongst the offices which he held were those of President of the International Union of Geography from 1934 to 1938, President of Section E (geography) of the British Association in 1911, President of the Geographical Association in 1927, President of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927 to 1930 (he was also on the RGS Council for 35 years) and was also Chairman of the Palestine Exploration Fund for fifteen years. He was Honorary Secretary of the International Geographical Congress.

This link to the RGS is also something which has been very important over the years, and Close seems to have been linked more closely with them than the GA.

Following text is from his Wikipedia page (shared under CC license)

Colonel Sir Charles Frederick Arden-Close, was a British geographer. He was Director General of the Ordnance Survey from 1911 to 1922. His insistence on attention to detail saw the improvement of many attitudes and methods at the Ordnance Survey. Close's planning saw the production of many maps now viewed as pinnacles in the classic period of map making. 

He was born Charles Frederick Close and changed his surname to Arden-Close in 1938 so as to comply with a bequest.

He was born in Jersey, the eldest of the eleven children of Major-General Frederick Close (1830–1899) After receiving his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1884, he saw service in the School of Military Engineering, and served in Gibraltar and India.

In 1889 Close was posted to the survey of India where he carried out topographic work in Burma and triangulation in Mandalay. There was a further posting to eastern Nigeria, to survey the border with the German Cameroon. After appointment to the Ordnance Survey he carried out much work in central, eastern and southern Africa. Close led a small surveying unit in the Second Boer War, and returned to Chatham in 1902 to become chief instructor of surveying at the School of Military Engineering. His Text Book of Topographical and Geographical Surveying, published in 1905 became the standard textbook on the subject.

Close served as Head of MO4, the Geographical Section of the General Staff, at the War Office until 1911.

In 1911, he was appointed Director General of the Ordnance Survey, a post he held until 1922. He introduced more rigorous scientific methods at the Ordnance Survey and proceeded with a second levelling of the United Kingdom. He was intent on producing one-inch maps of revolutionary appearance, including colour printing and precise printing methods. Because of the high cost of production Close had to compromise his aims and a simpler style was adopted.

This design set the standard for subsequent one-inch series.

Charles Close married in 1913 and had two sons and a daughter. He was knighted in 1918, in recognition of the Ordnance Survey's efforts during World War I during which over 30 million maps were produced.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1919.

Upon retirement in 1922 he became secretary of the International Geographical Congress and was also a long-serving Fellow of the RGS and in 1927 was awarded their Victoria Gold Medal and was later elected President (1927–30).

The announcement of his appointment in the Geographical Teacher:



In the same year, he became the President of the GA, Close became the first person to write an article in the newly named journal 'Geography' journal - the name change was mentioned in a recent blog post.
He described the different types of people who go to Geography conferences in his address on Population and Migration.

Which one are you?

Close continued to support the GA following his Presidential year, which was described as a great success by all accounts.

"Geography untouched by the human hand is dull to an extraordinary degree"

Sir Charles Close, Royal Geographical Society, 1932

The Annual Report of 1928 mentioned his ongoing support for the Association.

The Charles Close Society is still in operation, and is for those who are interested in Ordnance Survey Maps.
Thanks to John Davies with whom I corresponded about Charles Close, and Elaine Owen of the OS for her input and suggestions.




Close died in Winchester in 1952.

1927 also saw a few other events.
First was the death of Sir John Keltie.
1927 also saw an experiment in publications beyond the journals. Two research publications were created: one on a Historical Geography of Ireland and one on the Deccan Plateau, but sales were poor.

There is an interesting connection between Charles Close and my current work with the Ordnance Survey's GetOutside Campaign.

References

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Close - source of some of the page above

I added his GA Presidency role to the page.

OS website: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/docs/ebooks/map-makers-to-britain-since-1791.pdf (PDF download)

There is a Charles Close Society for the study of OS Maps which shows his influence persists even now.

Fleure, H. J. “ANNUAL REPORT.” Geography, vol. 14, no. 4, 1928, pp. 338–341. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40558279.

If anyone knows anything more about Charles Close and his work with the GA, please get in touch.

Update November 2019
Charles Close collaborated with the famous illustrator Ellis Martin.
He launched the One Inch Map for Tourists which sold well.


Update December 2019

Charles Close's obituary was published in 'Geography', written by H. J. Fleure.


Updated July 2022

A good quote:

"Geography untouched by the human hand is dull to an extraordinary degree"--Sir Charles Close, British Royal Geographical Society, 1932

— Dreamlander Jason Thompson (@mockman) December 5, 2015

Updated August 2023

A few tweaks and amendments and additional labels added.

I looked at the development of the International Population Union - linked with the UN - Close was the President for 6 years - was that of the UK National congress of the IPU?

A M Carr Saunders (another former GA President) mentioned it in an article in Nature:

Source:

International Population Congress in Paris. Nature 140, 471 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140471a0

I also followed up some more on the MO4 - the Geographical arm of the War Office, or the Military Survey.

This newsletter provided a biography of his activity during his service.

Source:

https://www.militarysurvey.org.uk/Newsletters/2018/Newsletter%2068%20Summer%202018.pdf

Updated August 2023

Close was not always as strong a supporter of 'geography' as he was when President (presumably).

In 1911, he was at a meeting of BAAS Section E.

This was linked to the changed nature of the papers presented, partly down to former GA Presidents who said that listening to travel papers wasn't necessarily advancing the discipline....

The outcome was:

Source:

Charles W. J. Withers, et al. “Geography’s Other Histories? Geography and Science in the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 1831-c.1933.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 31, no. 4, 2006, pp. 433–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4639988. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

Beaver, S. H. “Geography in the British Association for the Advancement of Science.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 148, no. 2, 1982, pp. 173–81. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/633769. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.