1930: Moving to Manchester

Updated October 2025

MANCHESTER: 1930 - 1946

In 1930, Professor H J Fleure took up the newly-established Chair of Geography at the University of Manchester and the GA moved with him. 

This meant finding a new place for the 4000 volumes that were now in the Association's Library, along with the Assistant Secretary who ran it and dealt with correspondence.



The Chief Education Officer in Manchester, Spurley Hey generously gave the GA free office and library accommodation in the Manchester High School of Commerce, which was gratefully accepted. Miss R M Fleming wanted to stay in Aberystwyth, and was replaced by Miss M. E. Owen. She proved herself to be just as efficient and skilful in her work.

When this became unavailable, temporary accommodation was provided at 103 Princess Street, Manchester, close to where the GA currently has its conference every three years or so.

This was a challenging time for the Association, with economic recession, and less demand for specialist teachers.
Despite that, the library's new location and premises allowed it to become a reference library, and use of it increased steadily.

T. C. Warrington took over as Honorary Librarian after stepping down as Headteacher of Leek Grammar School.

1917: Heading for Aber

Last updated October 2025

ABERYSTWYTH: 1917 - 1930
GA Honorary Secretary H. J. Fleure became the Professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University of Aberystwyth in 1917. He moved the GA’s library and office there, and used his Chairmanship of Council to promote international understanding as well as geography, so for the next 13 years the Association was based at the University of Aberystwyth. 

Fleure became the President of the GA in 1948.
He will have his own entry on the blog in due course.
He did a huge amount for the GA, holding several other vital roles for many decades. 

He is one of the greats of the Association, but also had some troubling views and problematic links with eugenics and race theory.

This passage below is from a Royal Society biography of Fleure, and describes this period. He was one of a handful of GA Presidents to be elected to the Royal Society.

Looking at documents from the time, the GA's address was shown as 1 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth.



I had a look on Google Street View for this building / address
Image copyright: Google Street View and image partners.

One of my aims for my Presidential year is to visit as many locations related to the history of the GA as possible, and to add some of my own images to the blog as possible to update the blog posts. I already have some images for some of the later presidents, which were taken over the years, but the blog has given me a slight additional purpose for visiting locations around the UK, which are associated with the development of the GA.

It's also important at this point that we mention several women who played a vital role at this time to maintain the library, and appropriate access to it.

• Mrs. Rachel Fleming completed a lot of work on a day-by-day basis for the Association, with very little pay offered, or available. There were fewer subscriptions to the Association because of the War. She served as Chief Clerk until 1930.
• Miss E J Rickard was Honorary Correspondence Secretary at this time.

They will both have their own posts on the blog in due course.

In 1923 there was another link made with Aberystwyth, as mentioned in Peter Fox's chronology.

1923: The GA Library and postal borrowing service moves to Aberystwyth. Members pay an extra five shillings to use this service to borrow one of the 500 books. 
The growth of the GA leads to the cessation of interest in educational matters by the RGS.

This last line was of interest, as it seems that for some time afterwards the RGS was "less concerned" with Education. That has all now changed of course, through the good works of Judith Mansell initially, and then Steve Brace and the current team who are involved in Education and Outdoor Learning at the RGS. There have been some interesting changes in the involvement of the RGS and IBG with schools over time. These will also be one of the recurring themes of the blog.

As we move nearer the time of the Action Plan for Geography of course, my knowledge of that relationship increases as I am proud to have been part of that team which delivered such a large and important project.

References

Garnett, Alice. “Herbert John Fleure. 1877-1969.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 16, 1970, pp. 253–278. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/769590.

https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/dges/about/centenary/historyofthedges/ - a mention for Fleure here

 Fleure, H.J. (1953) "Sixty years of geography and education", Geography, vol.38, pp.231-264
Image of Fleure: from GA archive

New source
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=p_xfuY8CJ48C&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=%22marguerita+oughton%22+sheffield&source=bl&ots=xln_U09sEO&sig=ACfU3U0BVaFI8t74PC7xxPHMiijd8QoLyQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbrsfys43pAhXKQEEAHeGlCCIQ6AEwAnoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Update - October 2025

An earlier version of this post had 11 Marine Terrace as the address. Looking again, this piece from 'Geographical Teacher' gives the correct address, which was listed elsewhere on the blog as 1 Marine Terrace.

Source:

“Back Matter.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 9, no. 4, 1918. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40554572. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.