1921: Halford Mackinder

I've been doing some reading to prepare for some work in my new role as VP: Education of the Royal Geographical Society.

I came across a speech by Halford MacKinder, delivered in the famous Map Room in 1921.

I was intrigued at the description of the GA as 'the dutiful daughter' of the RGS, asking for 'maternal help'.

This came at a time when the discipline was strong in universities, but not so much in schools.

This led to a report by John Scott Keltie.

I was interested that MacKinder was caned at school for drawing maps.... see below...

"About this time a step had been taken the significance of which was not at first recognized. Mr. Dickinson of Rugby had been using lantern slides in his classroom, and wanted to organize a system of exchanging slides between school and school. 

The Royal Geographical Society referred him to me, and at my invitation the first meeting of the Geographical Association was held at Christ Church, Oxford. Herbertson soon became Secretary of the Association, which under his auspices flourished, and began to publish a journal, the Geographical Teacher."

Source: Mackinder, Halford. “Geography as a Pivotal Subject in Education.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 57, no. 5, 1921, pp. 376–84. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1780845. Accessed 11 July 2024.

A new role for me at the RGS-IBG

I've been connected with the RGS-IBG for quite a number of years in various ways, as were quite a few other former GA Presidents. I'm now about to strengthen those connections a little more.

In 2007 I became a Fellow of the RGS and Chartered Geographer (Teacher) and have been ever since.

In 2008, I was awarded their Ordnance Survey Award for excellence in Secondary Geography Teaching. This was a proud moment and came at the culmination (I thought) of my teaching career as I was joining the Geographical Association and stepping out of the classroom. I didn't realise I'd be back again within five years.

I had also spoken at the RGS as part of a student day - with Alastair Owens actually - although I only found that out much later when digging through some old papers. It's a wonderful thing to stand on the stage in the Ondaatje Theatre where so many greats have stood before. We also took students there for a range of events, and I took part in an event representing the Guardian / DfE once as well. I ended up having lunch with Nicholas Crane and have bumped into all sorts of explorers and 'celebrity' geographers at times in the lunch area.

Between 2008 and 2011 I worked closely with the RGS - particularly Steve Brace - who is now the GA Chief Executive of course, and Claire Wheeler (now Claire Brown) along with the rest of their APG team as part of the Action Plan for Geography. This meant regular meetings at either the RGS or Solly Street at a time when Michael Palin was president.

From 2011 onwards for several years I contributed resources to the RGS website, thanks to Steve Brace. This included:

- From the Field resources - working with PhD researchers to translate their work into the classroom

- 'A' level / fieldwork materials funded by a Data Skills project

- a resource on Hunstanton's famous stripy cliffs

- the education materials for Felicity Aston's Going Beyond funded trip to the Pole of Cold - these won an award from the SAGT.

If you are a fellow, you will have received your electronic 'ballot paper' for the elections for Council for June 2024 and will perhaps have noticed that I have put myself forward for the post of Vice President: Education. I had to keep this to myself for a while.

This blog post would have been a request to vote for me in an election, but as it turned out I stood unopposed, so will be confirmed in this role at the AGM of the RGS in June, the same day as the RGS's Awards are handed out.

From June I shall therefore be taking on the role of Vice President: Education at the RGS and have a place on RGS Council for a four year term of office.

Thanks to the fine people who proposed me for the position, including a Polar explorer and some very excellent geography teacher colleagues.

Thanks also must go to my predecessor as VP Education: Mel Norman, who has also been closely associated with the Geographical Association. She Chaired and was Co-Chair/Secretary of the GA's Education Group and was also editor of 'Teaching Geography' for a lengthy period. 

She taught PGCE Geographers for many years - I visited her cohorts a few times while working for the GA - and is also closely associated with the organisation of the Charney Manor Primary Geography Conference. I'm hoping she will pass on more of her wisdom, much as she did when I started my GA Presidency. Speaking of which, Mel is one of those people who has not been GA President (yet) but would be fantastic in the role. She has received awards from the GA for her work in a range of spheres.

If you're going to be at the AGM / Awards or reception in the evening it would be fantastic to catch up. 

I shall be back with more requests as I get started on the role in the summer. 

I look forward to working with all the various Council and committee members, RGS staff and the new incoming President Professor Dame Jane Francis, who received the RGS's Patron's Medal in 2022.

There is work to be done to ensure that all the ongoing support that the RGS offers for teachers meets their needs, and continues to be responsive and inclusive to the changing needs of the profession. I'm excited to offer my support in various ways.

Image: Sam Parkinson

1972: Mr. Alan Durward Nicholls

Updated November 2023

Alan Nicholls was another of those relatively rare people who was a geography teacher when he became GA President, and a great proponent of Environmental Studies. 

In Balchin's Centenary book, he is described as an "active Head teacher" and in an Annual Report in 1971 as a "revered practising schoolmaster".

I delved and found out that he served on the Secondary Section Committee (as I did for many years) and was a member of the Central London Branch of the GA - which suggests he taught in London, and later found out that he succeeded another GA President Leonard Suggate as the Head of Geography at St. Clement Danes School in Hammersmith, London.

Here's an image from a Facebook page for the school. For a while, the only one I could find.

New Geographies over Forty Years was the name of his Presidential Address, given in January 1973, and by all accounts from the description, a humorous one, although it was not apparently printed in 'Geography' and not available to view unfortunately. I wonder whether a copy exists anywhere?

1971 saw a surge of interest in the quantitative methods, so perhaps he referred to those, and how the might translate into school geography? I would like to guess that he did, given the timing of his address a few years after the Madingley Conferences.

In that year, the GA Spring Conference (as it was called) was held at the London School of Economics, where it was held quite regularly.
Prior to being President, Nicholls was also Assistant Honorary Treasurer of the GA as well - another President to hold that significant (and voluntary) role.

Environmental Studies was one area of interest which he pursued, and this is a reminder of the different strands of geography which are picked up by different Presidents for their theme, address and also perhaps areas of interest while in the Presidency.
This area was also picked up in the Professorial Address of C. A Fischer, I have previously blogged about from my British Library research.

Nicholls article on Environmental Studies was also useful - see the link below



This was featured in a book on the development of this branch of Geography


Nicholls was chosen as the GA's representative on the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) geography board in 1966, and I assumed from early research that he was more of an academic geographer, but this was not the case.

I presumed from that appointment he taught in London, and that was what Richard Daugherty (another former GA President) thought when I asked him about connections with Presidents who were in post near to his own Presidency.

He is mentioned in this book 'Defining the Curriculum'.

Ten years ago almost to the day and from this platform, Professor Kirk said 'modern geography was created by scholars, trained in other disciplines, asking themselves geographical questions and moving inwards in a community of problems; it could die by a reversal of the process whereby trained geographers moved outwards in a fragmentation of interests seeking solutions to non-geographical problems'. Might not this be prophetic for us today? Could it not all too soon prove disastrous if the trained teachers of geography moved outwards as teachers of environmental studies seeking solutions to non-geographical problems? (Nicholls, 1973, p. 201)

A contribution described here is from Nicholls too.

This quote would also chime with those who explore the value of teacher subject knowledge, a current interest of many.

Following another thread, I found a small obituary tucked away in Geography in 1981.

He was born in 1910 in Cornwall, and died in 1981. He went to Truro School. He was made an Hononrary Member in 1980 just before his death.



I'm grateful to Fiona Hirst, archivist from the Clement Danes School for sending me another image of Alan Nicholls from later in his career.




References

Book link: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W9GHPA3zK0IC&lpg=PA1651&dq=mr%20a%20d%20nicholls%20geographical%20association&pg=PA1651#v=onepage&q&f=false 

NICHOLLS, A. D. “Environmental Studies in Schools.” Geography, vol. 58, no. 3, 1973, pp. 197–206. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568109.

“The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 66, no. 4, 1981, pp. 320–322. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570442.

I managed to find some images on a Facebook group page that was dedicated to the school, including an excellent image shared from a field trip back in 1953. This is one of my favourite images on the whole blog.

Thanks to the people who put the website together.
Here's Alan Nicholls on a Geography fieldtrip (presumably to North Wales)
Top of Snowdon, North Wales, 1953. Photograph taken by Jack Harvey and sent in by Geoff Skinner



He is fourth from the right on the front row and is described as "Old Nick" which seems fair. He seems to be having a good time as well. Some good fieldwork wear on display here, and great to see a President actually 'in action' doing some geography.

Thanks to Fiona Hirst for the additional details and image from the school magazine 'The Dane'

Updated November 2023

Revisiting past Presidents to see if I could find updates and came across an obituary in the RGS's Geographical Journal.

This reinforces his links with the RGS as well as the GA. He was the Chairman of their Education Committee and also served on Council. He studied at the University of Exeter. He travelled extensively.

He was a Cornishman.

"Good teachers are keen on their chosen subject and find it stimulating."

“Obituary: Alan Durward Nicholls (1910-1981).” The Geographical Journal, vol. 147, no. 3, 1981, pp. 394–394. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/633763. Accessed 1 Nov. 2023.