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.
Showing posts with label Percy Maude Roxby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Percy Maude Roxby. Show all posts
R H Kinvig is mentioned in a few documents referenced when I was searching for information on Michael Wise. He was connected with the University of Birmingham,. and also other presidents including Percy Roxby.
He served as President of the Institute of British Geographers in 1957.
Obituary, written by Michael Wise of whom he was a mentor, as he was for Harry Thorpe.
Wise, M. J. “Obituary: Professor R. H. Kinvig.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 135, no. 3, 1969, pp. 485–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1797428. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.
While researching something on the history of the RGS, I came across a book called 'The Geographer's Craft' by Emeritus Professor T.W. Freeman (of Manchester University) published in 1967.
"When Estyn Evans (EEE) completed his honours degree course in Geography and Anthropology with H. J. Fleure in 1925, Fleure's Department at the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth and P. M. Roxby's Department at the University of Liveipool were then the only two honours Geography Schools in the British Isles. Fleure had invited Sir John Linton Myres to act as external examiner. Myres realised that EEE had exceptional ability and suggested that he did his graduate work with him at New College, but EEE never got to Oxford - he was found to be suffering from tuberculosis and spent the next months in a sanatorium near Ironbridge. Fleure rescued him and arranged that he be looked after physically and mentally by R. M. Fleming's medical friend."
"Throughout the 1920s, the battle for recognition of Geography as a university discipline was being bitterly fought. Geography grew out of various university departments, some out of Geology and others out of History, thus there was diversity of input to the new schools. H. J. Fleure FRS had previously been Professor of Biology, and EEE found that the knowledge he acquired from his close contact with archaeologists over this period to be an extension of what he had learnt in Fleure's Department. He began to think like an archaeologist and to see man's development in a context of thousands of years. However, EEE always felt that he was a professional Geographer and archaeology was his relaxation - EEE was back at Aberystwyth, working under Fleure's supervision on geographical items for Encyclopaedia Brittanica."
"He founded a local branch of the Geograpbical Association shortly after his arrival. In 1917, after the sudden death of Professor Herbertson, Fleure took over the management of the Geographical Association which was then at a low ebb. He appointed R. M. Fleming as assistant secretary and under her management membership rose rapidly. The office remained at Aberystwyth until Fleure moved to Manchester in 1930. What was more natural than that a student who had grown up in the shadow of its head office and had been appointed to promote Geography teaching, should establish a branch in a new area? His objectives were to facilitate meetings between Geography teachers and perhaps to help raise the standard of their teaching and the quality of students entering the University. His aim was to promote the quality and status of his subject and not to glorify the state of Northern Ireland as Stout suggests."
"Stout says that EEE was 'Ireland's only professional geographer at this stage ' - this is not true. I do not know the position in the Republic. J. W. Darbyshire (an honours graduate of Liverpool University) had come to Belfast's Royal Academical Institution two years previously. Mr Murray lectured at Stranmillis Training College and there were geography teachers at Belfast's Royal Academy, Methodist College and other secondary schools and Thomas Dunne at the Technical College. After he had founded the local branch of the Geographical Association, teachers met monthly - there were lectures and excursions, and this kindled friendships and mutual support that became the strength of the Geography Department.
In the early 1930s, EEE ran a series of popular Geography Summer Schools. During the first years EEE was laying the foundations of what became one of the largest and happiest departments in the University it attracted students from Britain, Europe and overseas. He had to devise courses, compose and deliver lectures, supervise practical work, fight his corner at the University's Faculty and other meetings, all with no help - not even a lab assistant! In his foreword to the 1978 Jubilee Publication of the Geography Department, Eric Ashby (Lord Ashby of Brandon and Chancellor of Queen's) wrote of EEE: 'He had to establish the discipline of Geography against material resistances, such as shortage of cash and space, and psychological resistance. He succeeded also in mobilizing some of the expertise of the Department to tackle important social and economic problems in the community".
"At the end of the first year, in July 1929, he joined H. J.Fleure, R. M. Fleming, and other British geographers on the Llandovety Castle, and sailed with the British contingent to the British Association meeting in South Africa. He did not publish an account of the experience but later donated his diary notebook of the trip and his sketch book to the Royal Geographical Society. I have the letter the Society sent him expressing their thanks."
Source:
Evans, Gwyneth. “Emyr Estyn Evans.” Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. 58, 1999, pp. 134–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20568235. Accessed 16 Sept. 2023.
If anyone has an image of Emyr that would be appreciated...
A spot of history. I was looking for some more detail on the connection between Sir Patrick Geddes and the GA.
Here's the Council for 1930 - a great many past and future Presidents were Vice Presidents on Council at this time. The meetings must have been quite some event...
I wonder what happened to Miss A Shipperbottom and the other female members of council mentioned here.
While in the archive, I found a few boxes of folders of materials linked with the GA's involvement in Summer Schools.
These were held in the Summer (naturally) as an additional event at a time when the GA's main Annual conference took place over the New Year period. There were also Spring Conferences for some time.
They involved a great many of the 'great and the good' including academics and teachers. They were abandoned in the 1940s, and revived for a while in the 1950s and 1960s with many international locations for these courses which ran for 2 or 3 weeks and included travel.
Here's a description of one from 1949 in 'Geography'.
When I next head for Solly Street, my plan is to dig out the box and look at some of these events that happened in interesting locations and find out who was involved.
While in the GA Archive I came across the manuscript of an appreciation of the work of A J Herbertson: a legend from the very origins of the GA, handwritten by R J Unstead.
R J Unstead was a connection with the early days of the GA as well, having been a teacher who was influenced by hearing Halford Mackinder speak. He wrote about Herbertson, and that was featured in a 1955 issue of 'Geography'.
Source:
UNSTEAD, J. F. “A. J. Herbertson and His Work.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 4, 1965, pp. 343–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40565958. Accessed 19 Aug. 2022.
Here is the piece as it featured in 'Geography', in a special issue devoted to A J Herbertson.
Here is the manuscript:
He wrote a great many books which were published during the middle part of the 20th Century.
His obituary was published in 'Geography' in 1966, and written by Olive Garnett.
Source
Garnett, Olive. “JOHN FREDERICK UNSTEAD.” Geography, vol. 51, no. 2, 1966, pp. 151–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40566076. Accessed 19 Aug. 2022.
I lack an image of R J Unstead if anyone has any memories or is able to provide one from the 1960s.
MyHeritage has released a free tool which takes an image from a photo and animates it. The main target market is for those researching family trees and genealogy as it 'brings relatives to life' in a spooky sort of way. In fact My Heritage themselves say that some people don't like it. The term 'Deep Nostalgia' is used, which is close to 'deep fake'. They say:
Some people love the Deep Nostalgia™ feature and consider it magical, while others find it creepy and dislike it. Indeed, the results can be controversial and it’s hard to stay indifferent to this technology. We invite you to create videos using this feature and share them on social media to see what your friends and family think. This feature is intended for nostalgic use, that is, to bring beloved ancestors back to life. Our driver videos don’t include speech in order to prevent abuse of this , such as the creation of “deep fake” videos of living people. Please use this feature on your own historical photos and not on photos featuring living people without their permission.
I tried it on a few former GA Presidents - what do you think? Should I stop?
“He was a very kind and considerate man who won the affection and respect of his many students. Self-effacing and modest he took a great interest in other people and was an inspiration to so many geographers.”
Bill Mead was a true gentleman and always a popular visitor to Solly St. with all the staff there, through to the time when I worked there, when I met him a few times.
He sadly died in 2014, just short of his 99th birthday - nearly a century of commitment to geography - quite a legacy left through the work of students he taught - a gift that all of us teachers can be justifiably proud of, and the many books and other written contributions.
Bill worked as Professor of Geography at UCL IOE - a place with which he was associated for decades, and which has many close associations with the GA.
I had the chance to talk to him during visits to Solly Street, and I know that for several of the staff at Solly Street he was very much their favourite visitor. He also attended conference regularly and can be seen on many of Bryan Ledgard's images from the time.
There was a celebration of his life at UCL in 2014, when a range of notable geographers, including Dr. Rita Gardner said a few words about his life and work, and how he had influenced so many others during a long and varied career. This provides a great deal of detail on his long and varied career and travels.
"He said that his love for geography came from his childhood walking and riding in a pony and trap through the lanes and fields of his homeland."
Here is an interview with Bill, which tells you a lot about his upbringing and interest in the subject... a wonderful insight, and well worth an hour of your time as he identifies some key points in his life, and influences. He was a particular lover of Scandinavia. He talks about his own teachers, including one who had been in the army and travelled the world.
Bill trained as a school teacher, training at the College of St Mark and St John in London, and it was this which he often referred to as his real calling and introduction to the subject.
As with many geographers of the time, he also served during the war.
Mead joined the Royal Air Force in autumn 1939 as a volunteer. In 1940 he was posted to Mount Hope, Hamilton, Ontario, in an administrative role. In 1943 he moved back to England working for the Royal Air Force Educational Service. He was demobilised in 1946.
I like this quote from the UCL biography linked to below, written by Hugh Clout:
'Lectures were delivered without notes, as the spirit moved...replete with references to poetry, music, plays, works of fiction and even restaurants'.
Like many other Presidents, he has an association with the London School of Economics.
He was a student at Aylesbury Grammar School, and was remembered fondly there also, including on the school's website. This was followed by a long career in academic geography, and a long connection with UCL.
He wrote a really lovely memoir of his school days in the 1920s and growing up above a shop in Aylesbury - see the end of the post for a link to a copy that can be borrowed on the Internet Archive.
Bill also wrote many pieces for a number of magazines, and reviewed books for the London Review of Books. In one review piece from 1982, he described geography in this way when reviewing three books.
For many people, geography remains the story of exploration. But there is more to it than that, as these three books attest. They present the geographer as the student of landscape, as the environmentalist and as the ideologist.
Also on time:
"although geographers are principally concerned with space they have traditionally taken time by the forelock – time as a dimension of space. Sidereal time moved some of the earliest practitioners of geography. A whole school of geographers has developed around the concept of time as a resource, a resource made coherent by the formal division of time by markers, be they seconds or centuries. Academically, geography spans a borderland. It is among those disciplines that operate between the sciences and the humanities, between the mathematicians and the word-spinners. Its practitioners appreciate the implications of George Steiner’s thesis that for the scientist ‘time and light lie before,’ while the humanist, working essentially with words, is ‘drawn backwards’ because language carries the past within it."
Here's a lovely memory from a former UCL Geographer
Head of the Geog Dept at UCL when I did my degree. Absolutely charming man. On one fieldtrip to the Chilterns he visited us riding on his horse!
Bill contributed pieces to 'Geography', such as a 1959 piece on Finland, published when he was Reader in Geography at UCL, along with several books on Scandinavian countries and memories of visits there.
He became Professor at UCL in 1961. Head of the Geography department in 1966, he retired in 1981. He received many academic honours, and became a fellow of the British Academy
Bill became GA President as he retired.
His Presidential Address was on the 'Discovery of Europe'
In his Presidential lecture he explored different ideas of Europe, referencing Percy Roxby (former GA President), the author Patrick Leigh Fermor amongst many others.
He ended by suggesting a possible collective noun for geographers, something which crops up from time to time. I have suggested the word confluence: when we flow together we are stronger.
Here's Bill's suggestion: a cordiality of geographers.
He also left funding for a travel fund after he died. Details are here on a page which also involves an image of Bill riding.
Alan Kinder tells me that he also left a legacy which allowed for Scandinavian Geographers to attend the GA Conference.
He has
achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has
enjoyed the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has
never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left
the world better than he found it;
Who has
always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life
was an inspiration;
Whose memory
a benediction.
And concludes:
Bill Mead was a superb geographer of the highest
international stature. And he was such
a kind, thoughtful, and generous man.
Through his scholarship and his humanity, he set high
standards to which we can only hope to aspire.
For these remarkable qualities that enriched the lives of
all of us.
We thank him and shall never forget him.
Some awards that Bill received: Fellow British Academy, London School of Economics (honorary), Royal Geography Society (honorary vice president 1981, Founder's medal), Norwegian Academy of Sciences (honorary), Finnish Academy of Sciences (honorary), Scottish Geography Society (Research medal), Swedish Geography Society (Wahlberg Gold medal, Fennia medal), Orders Lion (Finland) (Commander), White Rose (Finland), Polar Star (Sweden), Order Vasa (Sweden).
Bill was still involved with the GA even in later life. The minutes of the AGM at the GA Conference in 2009, which I attended and presented at, show that he was in attendance, and I remember talking to him as it was the first conference since I had joined the staff of the GA to lead on Secondary Curriculum Development. In this, he reflects others with similar service such as H J Fleure.
This PDF document by Hugh Clout contains a huge amount of detail on Bill Mead's life and is perhaps the main resource to refer to if you want to find out more about him:
Images: copyright Bryan Ledgard and Geographical Association, used with permission I would love to hear more memories of Bill Mead. I am sure that many people met him over the last forty years.
Updates October 2020
As part of the work on this entry, I bought a 2nd hand copy of Bill's 'Towards a commonplace geography' and this will feature in a few future posts as there is plenty of interest including an image taken at the GA's Centenary celebrations in 1993.
There will also be some further updates to this post as more memories of Bill arrive in my inbox.
Front cover of one of Bill's books:
Bill was also mentioned by Sheila Jones as an academic geographer who loved the GA and continued to come to conferences well after his career was over. She mentioned Michael Bradford as showing similar service.
Here's Bill at an AGM of the GA.
Image credit: Bryan Ledgard and the Geographical Association
"He was a lovely man and deeply loyal to the GA, turning up at annual conferences long after most academic geographers had become less involved, with a few notable exceptions such as Mike Bradford." - Richard Daugherty
Updated October 2020
Thanks to Brendan Conway for sending me this personal memory of Bill Mead:
Bill Mead was an expert on Finland and did a lot to promote links with the UK. He also had links with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies where a couple of my friends were studying. I seem to recall that his tenure at UCL was drawing to a close around that time I was starting my degree.
He gave the undergraduates a pep talk and I remember him telling us to 'know where places are' which sounded a bit obvious until he explained how most people (including, it must be admitted, most of us) 'have no idea that much of Finland is east of Istanbul'.
This was a small but influential incident, because it signalled to me the importance of challenging misconceptions. I've taken this approach throughout my teaching career, emphasising how ‘facts’ can be converted into more powerful geographical knowledge that has the capacity to transform the way we see the world.
His final article has now been published posthumously, edited by Hugh Clout
Another former President: Simon Catling, told me in a personal communication:
Bill Mead, an academic geographer, seemed ever present, thoughtful, kind and challenging into his 90s. I met him first on a visit from school to the RGS for a Monday night lecture in 1965; he sought out our school group and was most thoughtful and supportive, always interested in young and new geographers, a real friend to geographers.
He is missed.
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...
