50 years of Teaching Geography journal

I've previously blogged about the origins of Teaching Geography journal under its first editor Patrick Bailey.

The current editor: Richard Bustin reflects on the 50th anniversary of the journal and how it has changed in the most recent Spring 2025 issue.

It includes a nice summary of the development of the journal by former GA President Richard Daugherty.

'Changing the subject'

This book by Eleanor Rawling was flagged up for me by David Lambert in a recent conversation where I talked about some of the curriculum changes I'd seen.

It describes the changes that took place in school geography between 1980 and 2000 - the era when I trained as a teacher and then started teaching.

I purchased a copy from Amazon second hand, which turned out to have been withdrawn from the Edward Boyle Library at the University of Leeds.

Eleanor, a former GA President of course, describes the various policy decisions at national level which influenced the shape of the National Curriculum in the mid 80s, with its many many attainment targets, which were turned into double page spreads by David Waugh and Tony Bushell in the ubiquitous 'Key Geography' series.

The book was published by the Geographical Association, and the acknowledgements section mentions a whole list of former GA Presidents who were also involved in its production, particularly Richard Daugherty and also in the contents as they were a big part of discussions around the time of the development of the National Curriculum.

More to come once I've had a chance to digest it further...

1989 Conference: Young Worlds

 

Does anyone remember attending this conference? 

I had recently started a full time teaching post in King's Lynn and my HoD may well have attended this...

GA Centenary - mystery images

Another few images supplied by Richard Daugherty from the GA Centenary celebration in 1993.

Help required to identify...

The lady with Richard at the dinner.

The lady on the left sat on the bench with Sheila Jones, Richard and Pat Cleverley... three Presidents.

I think it may be a member of staff at Fulwood Road (at the time)...

COBRIG Meeting

As part of my Presidential journey I was asked to attend a meeting of COBRIG: the Council of British Geography.

This includes members from the following organisations - some educational and others from awarding bodies, inspectorates and government bodies. 

British Science Association (Geography group recorder) (BSA)
Conference of Heads of Geography in British Universities
Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, Northern Ireland (CCEA)
ESTYN
Geographical Association (GA)
Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, England (OFSTED)
Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS with IBG)
Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS)
Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT)
Welsh Joint Education Committee/Cyd-bwyllgor Addysg Cymru (WJEC / CBAC)

COBRIG has been in existence since 1988.

It was created:

"to advance the interests of geography, and is made up of all the main organisations of geographers and geographical educationists in Britain."

Prominent among its initiatives in the educational context has been the recent COBRIG-inspired Geography into the Twenty-First Century (Rawling and Daugherty, (1996)), which has at its heart the central issue to which this article has been addressed: putting the  geography back into geographical education. This offers the basis of a fruitful agenda as represented, among other things, in Haggett’s delineation of ‘the central and cherished aspects of geographical education: a love of landscape and of field exploration, a fascination with place, a wish to solve the spatial conundrums posed by spatial configurations’ (Haggett, 1996, p. 17); in Johnston’s advocacy of a refreshed, dynamic, and distinctive place geography (pp. 73-4); and in Jackson’s concern for developing sensitivity to place connections at a variety of scales (p. 91); or, as Allen and Massey have put it: 

‘We live local versions of the world and in so doing we have to locate ourselves within a wider global context. We only understand the changes taking place in our own backyard when we begin to understand how changes taking place elsewhere affect our world’ (1995, p. 1)

Source: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/pluginfile.php/631169/mod_resource/content/1/geog_sk6_06t_5.pdf 

Neil Simmonds and Eleanor Rawling were originally involved from the GA's perspective, along with Richard Daugherty.

COBRIG previously ran seminars for geographers as well through the 1990s in particular.

This meeting was held at the Royal Geographical Society - the first time I'd been there for about three years and it was good to be back in such a historic location.

It was lovely to meet some old friends - particularly Erica Caldwell who was representing SAGT / RSGS, and also to make new acquaintances.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license.

Remembering Sheila Jones

A piece which appeared in the Autumn 2021 issue of GA Magazine.

Written by former Presidents Richard Daugherty, Jeremy Krause and John Westaway.

Trevor Bennetts

Updated October 2025

One of the names which has been cropping up throughout my work on the blog has been that of Trevor Bennetts. He was Senior Geography HMI during the 1980s: a time when the GA had to fight hard to ensure that geography found a place on the curriculum.

He lived in Eastleigh and was associated with the University of Southampton, where he was a Visiting Fellow in the School of Education. He was one of the attendees of the GA's Centenary weekend in 1993 at the University of Oxford. He can be seen chatting to Patrick Bailey in the centre of the image, in the light coloured jacket and trousers.

He was a long-standing member of the GA's Council - a key position.

In 1985, he published an article in 'Geography' on Geography from 5-16, which also remains significant.

Trevor Bennetts has written a great many important papers and articles and some are referenced at the end of the piece.

He was also involved in the development of the GCSE's in the late 80s (when I started teaching)

Richard Daugherty provided some details on Trevor's association with the GA, describing him as a 'long time supporter of the GA'.

"Trevor told me at the time that, against all expectations that ministers’ speeches are usually mainly written by officials, Joseph took great trouble to prepare what he said to the GA. Trevor was sent away more than once to supply Keith Joseph with further reading so that the Minister could satisfy himself that he had his arguments right when it came to speaking to the GA.
That tallies with my own experience of seeing the early drafts of the first ever GCSE geography criteria. As Pat Wilson, geography officer at SEC and SEAC, will confirm, their draft versions of the geography criteria came back from the Department of Education with insertions and amendments in Keith Joseph’s own handwriting. Not a Secretary of State who left things to his officials! "

His work on Progression in Geography from 2008 is still useful today.

Trevor was also included in the list by Jeremy Krause of people who should perhaps have been GA Presidents but never were.

References

Researchgate entries.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203994238-17/continuity-progression-trevor-bennetts?context=ubx&refId=620ebb2b-1c9a-42a3-ae5b-3772303f1406 

Bennetts, Trevor. “Geography from 5 to 16: A View from the Inspectorate.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 4, 1985, pp. 299–314. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571001. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021.

Bennetts, T.H. (1981) ‘Progression in the geography curriculum’ in Walford, R. (ed) Signposts for Geography Teaching. Harlow: Longman, pp. 165-85. 

Bennetts, T.H. (1995) ‘Continuity and progression’, Teaching Geography, 20, 2, pp. 75-9. 

Bennetts, T.H. (1996) ‘Progression and differentiation’ in Bailey, P. and Fox, P. (eds) Geography Teachers’ Handbook. Sheffield: Geographical Association, pp. 81- 93.

Image: thanks to Sheila Jones, GA President in 1975

All comments on Trevor Bennetts work with the GA welcome as always.

Update

Was sorry to hear that Trevor passed away in May this year. An appreciation of his work will feature in a future issue of GA Magazine. Condolences to Janice, family and friends.

Update September 2025

Here is the piece by former GA Presidents Eleanor Rawling and Richard Daugherty from GA Magazine's Autumn 2025 issue.

Update October 2025

Some memories from former President Jeremy Krause on the impact of Trevor's work.

"Firstly as an 'A' Level student in Harrow I am grateful to Trevor and others for running the Harrow and Wembley GA Branch. It was lectures from the likes of Prof Eric Brown that fired up my enthusiasm for geography beyond school. 

Secondly, Trevor and I found ourselves on the SEAC Geography Committee in the late '80s. It was a privilege to be party to the key debates about the nature of geography and its assessment. Trevor's clarity about what geography was and how it could be assessed with validity, were often at the heart of the debates and decisions we made. I recall the lengthy discussions about Humanities and how the proposals that we considered lessened the place of geography.

He also supported me when I was GA President.

What a loss, but weren't we fortunate to have him with us along the way."

Any other memories of Trevor and his work are welcome.

Commons Select Committee Evidence

The Geographical Association has often been called on to present evidence to official consultations and documents, and at times to Parliamentary Select Committees: particularly where that involves curriculum change or related educational issues. This work continues to the present day, with Alan Kinder being involved in such consultations and policy work regularly, along with other GA volunteers and staff. When I worked at Solly Street we were often called on to comment - I usually deferred such work to John Lyon as he has a good face for radio. :)

Here's an example provided by Richard Daugherty.

Parliamentary proceedings are all reported in Hansard.

This took place in April 1981 when there were discussions over curriculum content and what students should be learning in geography. It's interesting to see the way that subjects were viewed and also some of the preconcieved notions that members of the Education Select Committee had on the value of geography (and other subjects).

90th Anniversary - 1983

Thanks to Richard Daugherty for sending through a copy of a TES Article which was published in 1983 that he wrote. It provides a really nice summary of the rationale that lay behind the founding of the community of practice we know today as the GA, but which has gone through a great many changes. I'll share some of that article in a later blog post.

It will be worth revisiting what Richard has to say here when we reach the GA's 130th activity in 2023 perhaps, which will be 40 years on from when Richard wrote this piece, which he found as he was going through old documents to help me with the creation of recent posts on the blog.

GA Conference 1990

Thanks to former President Richard Daugherty for sending through a copy of the conference handbook for the conference in his Presidential year. It was held at LSE. There's plenty of lovely details in here from that year's conference, and will post some of them our on the blog as we go through the next week or so. All such ephemera and conference documents and images welcome.

Abandon ship!

Over the years, the GA has had some dalliances with alternative locations for the GA Presidential dinner at Conference, and tried different formats. It has become a buffet affair in the last few years. I've only attended one such event, and ended up on the top table as a friend had a spare ticket.

The image below was sent to me by former President Richard Daugherty, who has contributed a number of other blog posts to the project as well.

Richard told me:

At the 1990 Annual Conference the President’s Evening dinner broke with convention by being held on a Thames river boat that cruised down river to the Thames Barrier and back. This photo shows that year’s GA President, Richard Daugherty, making what must have been one of the shortest ever after dinner speeches at the event.
Unable to make himself heard on the boat’s PA system Richard soon gave up which was no doubt good news for everyone else, happily enjoying the food and drink on offer. The expression on the face of the other person in the photo Denys Brunsden, GA President in 1986-7, makes clear what he felt about it all.

Two years later, Eleanor Rawling tried a similar cruise which ended up having to cancel its plans to sail to the Isle of Wight because of bad weather, and there was a previous trip some decades ago to the Isles of Scilly which apparently nearly ended in disaster when bad weather struck.

Any other memories of these events, or other Presidential dinners past? Good speeches? Long speeches? I remember Sheila Jones saying she stopped talking at one event as she was aware of a sweepstake on how long she would talk for...

Image courtesy of Richard Daugherty

1989: Geography in the National Curriculum

Thanks to Richard Daugherty for sending me this image of the front cover of a book he was involved in producing for the Geographical Association in 1989 to support teachers with the new National Curriculum. The arrival coincided with my teaching career beginning, so I now realise I was starting teaching at an interesting time.

I'd be pleased to hear other memories from colleagues from around that time and other books that were used...

GA NC Book Cover 1989 by Alan Parkinson on Scribd

1987: Dr. Graham Humphrys

Updated February 2021 with a major update from Graham himself...

Dr. Graham Humphrys was the Head of the Geography department and previously sub-Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Social studies at the University of Swansea.

He served as the Chair of the GA's Publications and Communications Committee during the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

I was unable to find a decent image of Graham, close-up. When I first started the project I did come across a small image on a Flickr account by Tehmina Goskar.

She sent me the image here and told me:

It's not that high res but in the photo he is talking about the Lower Swansea Valley Project which was one of the first post-industrial reclamation projects. 

The symposium took place in November 2010 at the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea. All the best with the project.
Tehmina

From the GA Annual Report of 1983:

Dr. Graham Humphrys completed six years as Chairman of the Publications and Communications Standing Committee. Under his chairmanship this committee has been responsible for the recent surge in GA publications and the organisation of successful national and regional conferences.

In this capacity, he wrote reviews of quite a few publications which were published in GA journals - have been looking at journals from this period to try to get some images.
He also edited and wrote or co-wrote a series of books related to his geographical work, which included economic and industrial geography and heritage a subject about which he was obviously passionate according to this account of an event in the year 2000.

He was an expert on Swansea and Cardiff's industrial heritage and the restoration of old industrial landscapes and gave regular talks on this theme.

His fieldwork excursions publications series ran to several editions and were a good seller as well apparently.

Graham contributed an article on Swansea Bay City to the 'Geographical' magazine in 1971.

A special edition of 'Teaching Geography' in 1986 was all about economic and industrial geography, and Humphrys contributed to this, as well as other journal articles on this theme as part of his Presidential year.

He is also remembered here, from a former student who remembers his lectures on industrial change and the development of the S Wales area as a city region.

Graham's GA Presidential Address was on a theme which has gained recent currency: 'Changing Places'.



The idea of Changing Places is now more significant than it was back then.

In his Address, Graham explored the factors that influence places.

A former student, David Herbert reflected on that time and his influence here:

I was away from the Department of Geography for six years during which time I completed a PhD at Birmingham University and had my first academic appointment at Keele University. During the early summer of 1965 a post of Lecturer in Human Geography was advertised at Swansea and it was suggested that I should apply. This I did successfully and after a semester at Toronto University I returned to Swansea in the Autumn of 1965. 

My former teachers were still there but there had been new arrivals, most notably Graham Humphrys, the first South Wales-based staff member. His interests were in Economic Geography focused on South Wales and often his concept of the Swansea Bay City.

At Swansea University, Graham was following on from the legacy of W. G. V. Balchin.

In 2015, a journal article said:

Graham Humphrys has degrees from the universities of Bristol, McGill and Swansea, and is a former Senior Lecturer in Geography and former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Swansea University. His research interests focus on economic geography, the environment and geographical education. He is currently acting chairman of the Canadian Studies in Wales Group.

Updated February 2021

Thanks to Richard Daugherty for putting me in touch with Graham, who provided the following significant personal details to add to the post:

I was born in 1934 in the town of Maesteg in the middle of the South Wales Coalfield. 

I went to the local Grammar School and then in 1953 I won an entrance scholarship to Bristol University to study for an Honours Degree in Geography. In my second year Bill Birch, one of my lecturers, persuaded me to take out a student membership of the Geographical Association.

I graduated in 1956 and then spent a year working at the McGill Subarctic Research Laboratory in Schefferville, northern Quebec to start working towards a Masters degree. The next two years I was at McGill University in Montreal as a Teaching Assistant and finishing my M.A.. As part of this I spent the summer of 1958 in the West Indies looking into the alumina industry in Jamaica, Trinidad and what was then British Guiana. I also visited the research centre that McGill had in Barbados. I gained my MA in 1959 and was then appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in Geography at Edinburgh University for the academic year 1959-60.

In 1960 I was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in Geography at Swansea University. 

I gained my Ph.D. in 1967, and then stayed until I retired as a Senior Lecturer in 1997. 

My Head of Department at Swansea was Professor W.G.V. Balchin who was a keen member of the GA and very active in the Swansea GA Branch. (He served on the GA Council from 1949 until 1976, was a Trustee 1955-76, and President in 1971.) 

I re-joined the GA as a full member when I came to Swansea, and was active in the local Branch until the early 1990s. I was a Committee Member throughout that time, and at various times I was Chairman and Secretary of the Branch. During my career I gave lectures at other Branches whenever I was invited. I also contributed to various GA publications. In the early 1970s I was one of the leaders on two field excursions to North America for Geography Teachers organised under the GA banner. 

The first was Trans Canada in 1971 and the second down the western Cordillera in 1973. (Bill Balchin and Alice Coleman were the main organisers for both and I think they may have been based in the Isle of Thanet GA Branch). 

I was elected as an ordinary member of the GA Council in 1976. The GA at Headquarters was reorganising at the time and in 1977, much to my surprise, I was invited to Chair the newly formed Publications and Communications Committee. (The Honorary GA Secretary for that committee was Michael Williams).

At the time he was in the Education Department at Manchester University but subsequently he was appointed to a Chair in Education in Swansea where he still lives. We met regularly until the lockdown.

The Publications Committee was worked hard. The GA urgently needed a publications policy which it did not have previously, and this had financial implications. For example, there were shelves stacked with unsold publications which, if my memory serves me rightly, went back to pre-war days. Until then decisions on occasional publications were very ad hoc which had resulted in further accumulation of unsold stock. I also remember that there were decisions to be made to get Primary Geography published.

Fortunately the Headquarters staff provided tremendous support. They were very professional and well organised and got through an enormous amount of work. I stayed as Chairman until 1983 but remained on the Council until my year as President : 1987-8. 

During my year as President it was the GA’s turn to Chair the joint meetings of representatives of British Geography organisations. At the time the three main national organisations were the RGS, the IBG and the GA, but there were others on the committee representing the Heads of University Geography Departments, The Royal Society, The Royal Scottish Geographical Society and so on. By the end of 1988 it had been decided to reform the Committee into The Council of British Geography which I believe still meets. 

My involvement with the GA reduced after my year as President. At the Swansea level, restructuring of local schools had reduced the number of geography school teachers involved and it was difficult to maintain a programme. By this time there was little support for the local GA from the staff of the University Geography Department. I was away from Swansea for a couple of semesters in the 1990s, at Rhodes University in South Africa and at a University in Hokkaido and the Swansea GA Branch faded away, which was very sad. To end on a more cheerful note. Swansea did make a useful contribution to the GA at the local and national level in the second half of the twentieth century, with three national Presidents - Bill Balchin, Richard Daugherty and me, and an Honorary Secretary – Michael Williams, and three of us are still here. 

All happy memories. 

Good luck with your year as President.

Thanks so much to Graham for sending that through.

References

HUMPHRYS, GRAHAM. “Japanese Industry at Home.” Geography, vol. 80, no. 1, 1995, pp. 15–22. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572605.

https://ucl.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14324/111.444.ljcs.2015v30.002 - from 2015

Humphrys, Graham. “Changing Places.” Geography, vol. 73, no. 4, 1988, pp. 298–307. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571462.
https://www.iwa.wales/click/2010/11/making-our-past-work-for-the-present/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240442920_The_economic_development_of_the_British_coal_industry_From_industrial_revolution_to_the_present_day

Humphrys, Graham. “Recent Trends in Industrial Geography.” Teaching Geography, vol. 11, no. 3, 1986, pp. 120–121. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751638

Humphrys, G. (1972) South Wales: An Industrial Geography, David and Charles, Newton Abbot.

https://collections.swansea.ac.uk/s/swansea-2020/page/on-our-doorstep - memories by David Herbert, who was associated with the University of Swansea for over 40 years.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03098267708708618?journalCode=cjgh20 - the same person?

https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/50458/page/3

https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-African-Development-by-Tony-Binns-editor-Kenneth-Lynch-editor-E-L-Nel-editor/9781138890299

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/geography-becoming-african-chief-40-years-research/id419635927?i=1000410937785

Coates, Bryan E., et al. “Annual Report of the Geographical Association 1983.” Geography, vol. 69, no. 2, 1984, pp. 167–175. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570820. Accessed 8 Nov. 2020.

Updated December 2020

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their interest in geography. He lent me the letters and here is the response that Graham sent. At the time he was living in Swansea.

He talked about the place in which he was born and grew up in: Maesteg, and how he came to appreciate the importance of the physical geography of this place on the people who lived there, and the rise of the coal industry He didn't appreciate this until he got into the 6th form of the local Grammar School. 

"What made this all click academically was good teaching. I had two good geography teachers, a man who taught physical geography and a woman who taught human geography...."

GA Publications 

The regional distribution of Growth Industries in Britain, Geography, V 39, 1964. 

Industrial change; Lessons from South Wales, Geography, V 61, 1976

What University Geographers expect from their new students, Teaching Geography, V 3, 1977

Patterns on the map: Land utilisation survey maps as resources for teaching and learning, (with Alice Coleman, H. A. Sandford and J Bale), Geographical Association, Sheffield, 1982. 

Trends in Textiles, Geography, V. 69 (2), pp. 150 ‑ 153, 1984. Recent trends in Industrial Geography, Teaching Geography, V. 11, No. 3, 120 ‑ 121, 1986

Thanks to Chris Kington for the loan of the letters.

As always. further memories of Graham Humphrys would be welcome.

Updated August 2025

Graham also received the RGS Gill Memorial award in 1994.

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

The GA's responses to curriculum debates in the 1970s and early 80's - 2 of 2

This is the second part of an article written for me by Richard Daugherty, GA President in 1989. See Part 1 yesterday for the context: a move towards a National Curriculum framework.

During that time, the GA was also one of the leading members of the Council of Subject Teaching Associations (COSTA). When the House of Commons Select Committee invited a COSTA delegation to submit evidence to it about the school curriculum in April 1981, the GA sent me, as Honorary Secretary (Education) as its representative.

An extract (page 174) from the Hansard minute of that meeting offers some insights into two of the main issues that were raised by Select Committee members.

Hansard - GA Response to Framework Curriculum Proposals (1) by Alan Parkinson on Scribd

A Conservative MP, Patrick Cormack, clearly believed that knowledge of place names was being undervalued in the GA's leaflet (see previous post). Referring to the capitals of European countries, he says "I went to one school recently and none of them (the pupils) knew any of them."

Which hindsight,  could acknowledgement that place knowledge had a role, if not a major role in the teaching of geography have helped the GA be better prepared for the National Curriculum arguments later in the 1980s? 

On the same page of the Hansard report (above) is my attempt to respond to a question from the Committee Chair: Christopher Price by welcoming on behalf of the GA, a potential "common system of examination" for 16 year olds. 

This would within a short period become the GCSE that was introduced in 1986.

Thanks again to Richard Daugherty for both of these posts.

The GA's responses to curriculum debates in the 1970s and early 80s - 1 of 2

I am grateful to Richard Daugherty for taking the time to send me a number of contributions to the blog. Richard was the GA President in 1989, and his own entry on the blog will appear in a month or so.

In the 1980s, Richard was heavily involved in the GA's response to the proposals for a National Curriculum. This sort of advisory work has gone on for decades and often happens in the background, with many GA members being unaware of the effort that goes into shaping curriculum and assessment. I have been involved in a little bit of this myself, going back about 15 years.

GA Council, which used to make decisions on GA Policy and other work were aware of the emerging National framework for Geography following an earlier speech by James Callagham which I have blogged about recently.

The following text and documents were provided by Richard. The documents themselves were uploaded for Scribd for ease of access and reading.

Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the GA was responding to emerging ideas from Government and from the Inspectorate that would eventually result in a statutory National Curriculum for schools in England and Wales. The first section of a discussion paper for a meeting of GA Council in March 1980 summarises developments up to that point.

GA Council Paper March 1980 by Alan Parkinson

Shortly after that meeting, I co-wrote an article with Rex Walford for the Times Educational Supplement (TES), published on 18th April 1980, commenting on the curriculum proposals.

It was titled "Overlooked in the Secret Garden".

Here's Part 1 of the article.

TES Article Page 1 18th Apr... by Alan Parkinson

Here's Part 2 of the article

TES Article Page 2 18 April... by Alan Parkinson

The GA then decided to prepare and circulate a leaflet to summarise the main features of what we believed to be the subject's contribution to the education of young people'.

'Geography in the School Curriculum 5-16' was published in January 1981.

It can be seen below:

GA Pamphlet Re School Curri... by Alan Parkinson

The GA leaflet 'Geography in the School Curriculum 5-16' was distilled from lengthy discussions in GA committees into a summary of what was then agreed as the Association's view on geography's contribution to the curriculum.

Part 2 to come tomorrow.

Richard Daugherty on Sheila Jones

Richard Daugherty was the GA President in 1989, and his own post on the blog will be published sometime in November if I stay on the current schedule. He has offered to write a whole host of new updates for the blog around his own work at the time, which included some time as Honorary Secretary (Education)

A recent e-mail included a lovely additional update on Sheila Jones, who was the GA President in 1975, at a time when she was a Deputy Head in a comprehensive school.

The following is from Richard:

Sheila was at the heart of so much the Association achieved during the 1970s and 1980s. The characteristically warm comments from others about her contribution capture much of the several ways in which she was involved. I would like to add a little more about what Sheila did for the GA both before and after her Presidency in the mid 1970s. 

She and I first met when I joined the ‘ginger group’ GA committee, ‘Models and Quantitative Techniques (M&QT)’ in the 1960s. Key contributors, such as Rex Walford and Brian Fitzgerald, to the ideas that were changing the teaching of geography have rightly been acknowledged. But every committee about teaching also needs members whose daily work is in classrooms and who are willing to put in the work needed to keep those ideas flowing. In her roles, first as secretary and then as chair, Sheila did just that. 

 Others have referred to Sheila’s part throughout her teaching career in making the Bristol GA branch so successful, supported by the University’s Geography Department. After she had been President Sheila became more than just the GA’s Branch Officer in the formal sense. She was the voice of the branches, always to be listened to, in any discussion at national level. 

 Lastly, but not to be underestimated in the era of Barnaby Bear, Sheila was the pioneer, with the help of Pat Cleverley, in developing a range of GA branded gifts to be sold as both emblems of commitment and a source of income for the Association. Irked by the availability of a male only garment, GA ties, Sheila started by insisting that scarves for female members should also be sold. 

What originated as a ‘cottage industry’ managed by Sheila from home developed over the years into a significant aspect of the Association’s work.

Thanks for the update. Perhaps the ties and scarves need to return to the GA shop.

Richard Daugherty on H. J. Fleure

Another contribution to the blog which has been very kindly  provided by Richard Daugherty, GA President in 1989.

He writes here about H. J. Fleure. This is drawn on research he did at the Sheffield City Archives on the history of certain episodes in the GA's history. Once we are able to visit such place more freely I hope to get there. 

Fleure's original entry, from 1948 can be viewed here.

I also wrote about the move of the GA to Aberystwyth and the role of Fleure (and his assistants in the library) at that time.

The blog already refers to Fleure as being one of the 'true greats' in the Association's history. But should he perhaps be seen as the true great? 

There has been no other Honorary Secretary in the GA' s history who served in that office for as long as 29 years (1917 to 1946). And there is certainly no other past Honorary Secretary who increased the GA membership fourfold during their first three years in that office. 

One episode that reveals how much work, in addition to building up the Association's profile and membership, Fleure put in behind the scenes is the GA's office move from Aberystwyth to Manchester in 1930. Correspondence lodged in the GA records held in the Sheffield City Archives shows how he achieved such a satisfactory result, free office and library accommodation in Manchester City Council's High School of Commerce Building. 

Until Fleure's move from what is now Aberystwyth University to a post as Professor in Manchester University's Geography Department he carried out his work for the GA from an office located at 11 Marine Terrace, Aberystwyth. 

With Fleure due to take up his new post in Manchester later in the year, the GA Executive considered offers of office accommodation from both the University, Fleure's new employers, and from the city's Education Committee. The University's offer was of a three year tenancy at 18 Lime Grove at a rent of £20 per year. Correspondence between Fleure and a Mr Stevenson, Chief Inspector of Schools for Manchester City Council, resulted in a better deal and the eventual move to the Council's High School of Commerce building. 

A letter from Fleure to Stevenson dated 1st March 1930 explains that the GA by then needed space for a library of 4000 books and its collection of lantern slides as well as room for an office. 

Fleure said:

"The possibility of my continuing my work for the Association as Hon Secretary depends on my having its office and library either in the Department of Geography or very near it" 

Where would the Association be today without such influential individuals as Fleure, who arranged and carried out the move to Manchester, and his successors who negotiated later office moves, first to university accommodation in Sheffield and then to the current offices in Solly Street?

1980: GA thoughts on the school curriculum

A report by Richard Daugherty and Rex Walford in response to Government proposals for the School Curriculum, published in 1980. Another of the many policy documents the GA has created over the years.


Reference
Daugherty, R., & Walford, R. (1980). GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN ENGLAND AND WALES. Geography, 65(3), 232-235. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40569279

1977: Professor Stan Gregory

Updated August 2023

“a major agent for change in how geography is practised here in the UK..."

From the eulogy at Professor Gregory's funeral by Ron Johnston, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex

Stan Gregory was Professor of Geography at the University of Sheffield, and also active at other universities.

Professor Gregory's address was on 'The Role of Physical Geography', and his work in the area of climate change was an area he will also be remembered for.

From the Obituary page of the University of Sheffield:

Stan Gregory was born in London in 1926 and educated at the Polytechnic Secondary School on Regent Street. He acquired his initial knowledge of meteorology while serving in the Navy towards the end of the Second World War. He then obtained a first in geography at King's College London (1950), followed by an MA (1951) and a PhD (1952) at the University of Liverpool while working as an assistant lecturer.

Working at Liverpool until 1968, Professor Gregory later moved to the University of Sheffield, where he remained until retirement, as Professor of Geography (1968-88). He served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (1978-80) and a Pro Vice-Chancellor (1980-84), as well as taking visiting posts in Australia, Canada, India, Eastern Europe, Jamaica and a number of African countries.

A leading climatologist, Professor Gregory had a particular interest in the study of rainfall in subtropical and tropical regions and related issues of water resources. Yet he was probably better known as a leader of the "quantitative revolution" in geography.

He was linked with the IBG, which later merged with the RGS.

To influence researchers and universities, he co-founded the Study Group on Quantitative Methods within the Institute of British Geographers.
To make a similar impact in schools, he persuaded the Geographical Association to set up a Committee on Models and Quantitative Techniques in Teaching, and he became its first chair.

He also promoted the "revolution" though a landmark 1963 textbook.
“Few textbooks have changed the practice of geography,” said Sir Paul Curran, the Vice-Chancellor of City University London, “but Stan's ‘Statistical Methods and the Geographer’ was one of them.

A keen and intrepid traveller, Stan saw many features of the globe: some of the highest mountains, longest rivers, mightiest water falls, biggest and deepest lakes, and largest deserts. (a statement taken from the obituary)

Stan's GA Conference theme, and his lecture were both on the theme of Physical Geography.
Gregory, S. (1978). The Role of Physical Geography in the Curriculum. Geography, 63(4), 251-264. Retrieved August 25, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40568997

Stan was an early advocate for the use of the statistical method, and later technology. He was asked to chair an important GA committee at a time of tension.

Source: Ron Johnston Bibliogeography piece - sample on Google Books:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=kVtwDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA90&ots=AHT4_XIJ21&dq=Geographical%20ASsociation%20Package%20Exchange&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q=Geographical%20ASsociation%20Package%20Exchange&f=false

He worked with the JMB examining board


He received the Murchison Award from the RGS, and a medal named after Hugh Robert Mill (another former GA President) awarded by the Royal Meteorological Society.
I like this mention of him too:



Might be something to introduce to the GA conference.

Stan was made an Honorary Member of the GA (one of the highest honours of the Association) in 1991.

Since I wrote this original piece back in August 2019, a couple of significant new resources appeared.
There was an excellent description of Stan's life in the University of Sheffield's Facebook area.
Included an image of him teaching.



Source: https://www.facebook.com/notes/university-of-sheffield-alumni/the-story-of-stan-gregory/10155934590756548/

Stan sadly died in 2016.

He left some money to the University which funds postgraduate students.

References
Gregory, S. “The Role of Physical Geography in the Curriculum.” Geography, vol. 63, no. 4, 1978, pp. 251–264. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568997

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/geography/news/stan_gregory-1.573272\

Image source: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/alumni/our_alumni/obituary-archive/stan-gregory-obituary

https://www.facebook.com/notes/university-of-sheffield-alumni/the-story-of-stan-gregory/10155934590756548/ - the story of Stan Gregory

Bibliographical Studies mention: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E-xwDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA93&ots=yyywauK3MP&dq=stan%20gregory%20sheffield&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=stan%20gregory%20sheffield&f=false 

Please pass on any further memories of Stan Gregory if you have them.

Updated August 26th 2020

Thanks to Norman Graves (who will feature in the next Presidential post) for sending me some memories of Stan:

"Stan Gregory and I were students in the Joint School of Geography which was then shared by Kings College and the LSE, though he did a straight Geography degree while I did a BSc (Econ) which actually included a course in statistics which proved useful during the quantitative revolution. 

Our paths crossed again in Liverpool when I joined the Education Department, while he was in the Geography Department headed by Professor Steele at that time."

Updated October 12th 2020

Many thanks also to Richard Daugherty for sending me his own memories of Stan Gregory:

"Stan Gregory’s contribution to the Association’s development was exceptional. In addition to being its President in 1977/78 he also served terms as Hon Secretary and Trustee (twice). From his appointment as Secretary in 1968 to his final year as Trustee in 1990 that added up to a total of fifteen years contributing to the Association in those key voluntary roles.

Alice Garnett having negotiated the move of GA HQ from Manchester to Sheffield it was Stan Gregory who followed her by maintaining the GA’s links with the Geography Department of Sheffield University. Colleagues of his, including Bryan Coates and Malcolm Lewis, would also serve terms as officers of the Association. The debt which the Association owes to Sheffield’s Geography Department can best be summed up by pointing out that in every year from 1950 until 1992 at least one of the GA’s honorary officers was a member of Sheffield University's Geography Department’s academic staff.

My own memories of involvement in the Association’s activities are coloured by my first encounters with Stan. I had completed a degree at sleepy Oxford while the subject was changing rapidly elsewhere, not least at Cambridge. 

The 1960s ‘new geography’ had therefore passed me by as an undergraduate. A GA weekend course in Sheffield, led by Stan Gregory, during my first year in school teaching offered a chance to find out more.

Stimulated by what I had learned there I wrote to the GA asking to be kept in touch with the work of its newly formed committee, chaired by Stan Gregory, on ‘models and quantitative techniques in geography teaching’. Much to my surprise I received a letter back from Stan inviting me to become a committee member. It was a measure of Stan’s skills with people that, though I was initially overawed by the ideas and energy of committee colleagues like Rex Walford, he soon made me feel that I had a contribution to make."

Update November 2020

Obituary in the Times Higher Education Supplement

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/people/obituary-stan-gregory-1926-2016

A geographer who radically reformed the discipline has died

A leading climatologist, Professor Gregory had a particular interest in the study of rainfall in subtropical and tropical regions and related issues of water resources. Yet he was probably better known as a leader of the “quantitative revolution” in geography.

To influence researchers and universities, he co-founded the Study Group on Quantitative Methods within the Institute of British Geographers. To make a similar impact in schools, he persuaded the Geographical Association to set up a Committee on Models and Quantitative Techniques in Teaching, and he became its first chair. He also promoted the “revolution” though a landmark 1963 textbook.

In a eulogy at Professor Gregory’s funeral, Ron Johnston, former vice-chancellor of the University of Essex, recalled Professor Gregory as “a major agent for change in how geography was practised here in the UK” who was also a highly effective university administrator. 

His “quiet tact and great patience in negotiations” had proved great assets during a period of student unrest while he was pro vice-chancellor.

A keen and intrepid traveller, Professor Gregory recently celebrated his 90th birthday by visiting the site of the Palace of the Queen of Sheba in Oman. He died after a stroke on 8 April and is survived by his wife Helga, two daughters from an earlier marriage and three grandsons.

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 Stan had sent a reply.

In it, he talks about being evacuated from London in the 1930s. He had been attending the Polytechnic Secondary School in the Polytechnic, Regent Street in London. At the time his total experience had been Central London, but he was then evacuated to Minehead in Somerset at the age of 13. He was a keen walker and remembers a walk over North Hull overlooking the town.

He says:

"The autumn colours of the trees, the bracken, the heather and beyond that the blue of the sea all wrapping around the town and the neighbouring fields and marshes. I suddenly realised that the world was a wonderful place!"

Many thanks to Chris Kington for the loan of the letters.

Updated August 2023

@CanCommSchols alumnus Stan Gregory (1926-2016) held a Commonwealth Fellowship at @uOttawa in 1969. He was one of the major influencers in changing British geography teaching. He spent much of his career at the @sheffielduni . https://t.co/CvZt7gQuwY

— Canada CommSchols (@CanCommSchols) November 24, 2020

Young & Lowry hah! Staple text for O level & early GCSE Geography. Stan Gregory (stars for geography) was my viva interrogator at Sheffield university. Wonderful, self-deprecating man. I've had most of the others too. Thanks for the memory!

— Geoff Nelder - writing, reading & colouring in (@geoffnelder) April 24, 2020

New on the University of Sheffield Alumni Facebook page - a story which had an input from his daughter after the original version presumably.

Some lovely family photos on there.

An interview with Peter Batey who was influenced by Stan.

Quantitative Geography piece.

A detailed piece by Ron Johnston in Biogeographical Studies.

He references Robert Ogilvie Buchanan (another former GA President) as one of the better lecturers he had.

Stanley Beaver (another former GA President) also said that Stan Gregory was one of his best students - lots of connections like this have emerged over the years I've been working on this.

He also won the Hugh Robert Mill award (another former GA President)

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E-xwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=%22stan+gregory%22+geography&source=bl&ots=yzBtfrH7NQ&sig=ACfU3U24IDs3BsoaDHJaSOCIMiHOMhCA9Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjChay4kPGAAxVUh_0HHeLtBDg4FBDoAXoECBgQAw#v=onepage&q=%22stan%20gregory%22%20geography&f=false