Margaret Mackintosh RIP

Updated post.

Sad news at the end of last week from colleagues who have organised the Charney Conference over the years of the passing of Margaret Mackintosh who was still active and interested in geography in her 80s. Just a few weeks ago she attended the latest online GeogLive! session run by the GA's Primary and Early Years Committee.

Image from Margaret's Facebook page.

Margaret was a retired primary teacher and BEd Geography-in-education tutor, and also a former long-standing Editor of Primary Geography journal and continued working as a geography consultant and writer. She lived in Exmouth.

Sharon Witt told me:

Margaret was a long time contributor to Charney conference. Lots of amazing stories of her travels, mentoring and welcoming colleagues at Charney Conferences and being a student of Margaret's at Plymouth University are coming in.

Coincidentally, a few days ago my Facebook memory was of a message from Margaret letting me know about another cliff fall in Sidmouth on a stretch that I'd used as a textbook case study, and visit each year to check on its progress.

Margaret was awarded the GA's Outstanding Service Diploma back in 2016. Here she is receiving her certificate from the President Steve Rawlinson.

Steve says of this event:

"It was a wonderful honour to be able to hand it over her as she had been so supportive during the year offering advice and encouragement as only Margaret could."

Image: Bryan Ledgard.

Margaret created the logo for the annual Charney Manor Conferences. She was a very accomplished artist, particularly landscapes and pets. Here she is with a painting she had created for Paula Owens along with Steve Rawlinson and Tina Horler

Image: Bryan Ledgard

Steve told me:

"She was a wonderful artist of both landscapes and pets – I have two lovely pictures of Lady Summer and Fluffy Flora! This particular one shows how much she enjoyed being in the company of fellow geographers. She leaves such a legacy of memories, advice and scholarship to us all. She will be greatly missed."

In this piece for Primary Geography she talks about our identity and how it is shaped by our family.

Condolences to Margaret's family, friends and former colleagues.

Image: Margaret's logo for the Charney Primary Conferences.

Primary Geography Journal - Spring 2025

The theme for this issue, edited by Ben Ballin, is the Geography of Togetherness. 

I am very pleased to have an article in this issue on this theme. 

Thanks to Ben for asking me to contribute some time ago. 

Subscribers can now download the digital issue and print copies will be arriving shortly. There are some other excellent pieces in this issue too as always, including a lovely contribution by Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke and also a personal piece from Steve Rawlinson on the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree.

In my article I talk about rural and urban ex/inclusion of certain groups and offer some suggestions of projects that might be of interest to explore this topic with pupils.

Charney Manor Primary Geography Conference 2023

I had booked to attend this annual event during 2022 and my Presidential year, but the conference had to be postponed after a storm took out the electricity supply to the venue, and I had to quickly email all the delegates to let them know that the event was cancelled, managing to catch some people just before they set off on lengthy drives, or to catch a plane.

This year's event was the 25th conference, so there was cake of course.

I have just finished blogging the event over on my LivingGeography blog.

Head over there now to see the 10 posts summarising the event. Search on Charney Manor Primary to find the posts.