'The Geographer as Scientist'

From my visit to a wonderful second-hand book shop called ‘Peter’s Books’ (probably the best in East Anglia), I now have a 1956 copy of ‘The Geographer as Scientist’ by S.W. Wooldridge. 

He was GA President in 1954 and also President of the IBG and Chair of the Field Studies Council. 

There are some excellent essays, including his own GA Presidential address, with plenty to say about teaching and the rle of the GA, RGS and FSC and how it has changed.

Professor Eric Brown

I'm still interested in adding further details of people and connections with the GA - the blog is not over, although the main phase has been completed in terms of writing biographies of all former Presidents.

Please get in touch if you have things you might want to add.

I came across this obituary of Professor Eric Brown from 2018, who had a number of connections with the GA and the RGS.

An edited version of a remarkable career, with plenty of RGS and IBG related work as well.

Eric Herbert Brown died at Berkhamsted on 5 January 2018 at the age of 95. He taught geography at University College London for almost four decades, inspiring generations of undergraduates and mentoring dozens of research students. His doctoral work, published as The Relief and Drainage of Wales (1960) earned him the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society and has become a classic work in physical geography. Eric was President of the Institute of British Geographers in 1978 and served as Honorary Secretary of the RGS from 1977 to 1987, and then Vice-President (1988–1989). He edited Geography Yesterday and Tomorrow (1980) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Society. 

The son of Samuel and Ada Brown, Eric was born on 8 December 1922 at Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. His exploration of the surrounding countryside, on foot or on bicycle, awakened his interest in geography, and a game of “brook jumping” introduced him to the meandering of streams. Having excelled in his secondary education at King Edward VII Grammar School in Melton Mowbray, he was accepted to study geography at King's College London. His first academic year was spent as an academic evacuee in Bristol, where he was tutored by Sidney Wooldridge who had a profound influence on his approach to geography and his subsequent career. From 1941 to 1945, Eric was a Royal Air Force pilot, after training at several bases in Britain and Canada. As a member of 517 Squadron, Coastal Command, he was involved in anti-U Boat operations over the Bay of Biscay and collected meteorological data on long patrols over the Atlantic to assist forecasting of weather in Europe. This contributed to the forecast from which General Eisenhower decided to postpone D-Day by 24 hours. 

Based in Pembrokeshire, Eric met a local farmer's daughter named Eileen Reynolds whom he married in 1945. After the war, he resumed studies at the King's College-London School of Economics Joint School of Geography and obtained a first class degree in 1947.

Following Wooldridge's advice, Eric accepted an assistant lectureship at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, where Emrys Bowen was professor. With support from geologist Alan Wood, Eric researched the geomorphology of Cardiganshire for his MSc (University of Wales, 1949), and started work on his doctoral project covering Wales (University of London, 1955). He made field observations throughout Wales, usually travelling by motorbike. His investigations impressed Professor Henry Clifford Darby, whom he had met at an IBG conference, and he was invited to join UCL. After advice from Wooldridge, Eric began teaching in London in January 1950. 

Throughout his career, Eric's main teaching responsibilities lay with geomorphology and North America, the latter popular course being shared with Bill Mead. 

Beyond the British Isles, Eric gained field experience in Poland in the early 1960s of periglacial features and the techniques of geomorphological mapping developed there during the 1950s. This led to him making a significant contribution to all of the four meetings (one of only three such “regulars”) between November 1958 and January 1961 that began by proposing a Land Form Survey of Britain, and ended with the agreement to establish the British Geomorphological Research Group (BGRG). The minutes of these meetings reveal Eric to have been a strong advocate for the Polish style of geomorphological mapping (of landforms) rather than the morphological mapping (of slope attributes) favoured by some others; as well as for the foundation of the BGRG (together with David Linton and Wooldridge). 

Eric retired in 1988 but retained many links with UCL and especially the Remote Sensing Unit. In 2002 his long and dedicated service to geography was marked by an honorary doctorate from the University of York, where his former student Sir Ron Cooke was vice-chancellor. Eric continued to be an active member of his local community in Berkhamsted, including its branch of the Geographical Association. He attended academic events at the RGS-IBG and meetings of the Geographical Club. 

He deepened his appreciation of rugby football and fine wines. UCL Geography emeriti enjoyed regular “pub lunches” until last year, when Eric would recall wartime experiences as if they were yesterday. A visit, with Bill Mead, to Gerry and Marion Ward in the south of France became an annual fixture. After the death of Eileen in 1984, he lived alone for three decades, moving into a retirement home only for his final months. Professor Eric Brown is survived by his daughters, Jane and Megan, and by his grandchildren in whom he took great pride.

Decolonising geography - early days

While looking for something else I came across Daniel Clayton's paper from the University of St. Andrews.

In it he talks about the emergence of decolonising and the early proponents of looking back at the nature of Empire, with Felix Driver's work being mentioned prominently.

In the aftermath of World War II, two British geographers, Sidney Wooldridge and Ronald Harrison Church, implored colleagues to take the study of colonial geography more seriously.  Wooldridge (1947, 202) ventured that “it appears to me to throw a strong light on the position of Geography in this country that we are so calamitously and shamefully ignorant of our Colonial Empire”.  And Harrison Church (1951, 116-17) sought to make amends with a primer entitled Modern Colonization, noting that Africa was “ripe for rearrangement” (albeit colonial reform more than independence).  

As Britain’s sprawling empire shrank, the type of geographical study and imagery associated with it became less acceptable and feasible, and Alastair Bonnett (2003) asserts that geography soon abandoned its bequest as a “world discipline” and geographers sought to make their discipline ‘useful’ again by focusing on pressing domestic problems.  Yet geography was not taught at many of the new universities established across the United Kingdom in the post-war decades, in part because politicians continued to view the subject as having “a somewhat ‘dated’ look about it”, as Ron Johnston (2003, 69) puts it. 

 Indeed, the ‘conquest’ of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in June 1953, coinciding with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, was arguably the crowning glory of 1950s British geography and points to the post-war extension rather than liquidation of geography’s empire.  

The RGS was a proud sponsor of the Everest Expedition, and through to the 1970s its learned organ, The Geographical Journal, kept a populist foot in the imperial past by publishing excerpts “from the journal a hundred years ago”, most of which were manly tales of expeditionary derring-do.   

Source: (PDF link) to read the whole paper.

https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/263517541/Clayton_2019_AAAG_geography_sempire_AAM.pdf

1993: Professor Andrew Shaw Goudie

Last updated August 2023

What other subject tells us so much about the great issues of our age – global change, natural and human?

Professor Andrew Goudie, University of Oxford.

Andrew Goudie is a geomorphologist, and a leading expert on drylands.

He has published a vast range of books, articles and other papers, and received numerous awards for his work. Andrew sent me a CV which included almost 30 pages worth of links to papers and other publications and contributions over the years.
I have been lucky enough to hear Andrew speak several times, and was on the same 'bill' as Andrew at an Oxford GA Branch conference some years ago. The most recent event we both attended was a 75th anniversary event for the Field Studies Council at the Linnean Society in London, where Andrew gave a presentation which referenced several former GA Presidents.

Much of this entry was made up of contributions from Andrew himself thanks to a questionnaire I sent round to all the GA Presidents I could.


Image: Andrew Goudie supplied - copyright rests with Andrew Goudie

I am grateful to Andrew for sending through a number of documents to help me with the creation of the blog, including images of Presidents I was having difficulty tracking down who have already been featured - I also found some additional images from other contemporary Presidents as the blog has reached nearer to the present day.

I also mentioned him to William Atkins, author of the amazing book on the deserts that he wrote a couple of years ago.

Thank you! I'm so pleased to hear that. I turned to Andrew Goudie's books constantly while writing it.

— William Atkins (@WillAtkins01) August 3, 2018

Andrew also got a mention from a later GA President Keith Grimwade, who went to Jesus College, Oxford. 

He told me: 

"the mid to late 70s was also an exciting time to be an Oxford geographer because having lost out to Cambridge and elsewhere in the quantitative revolution, it was just beginning to pull ahead with its work on the environment and climate, led by someone else who was to become a GA President, Andrew Goudie". 

Andrew also hosted the GA's Centenary celebrations as he was the President of the GA during the Centenary celebrations. I have already shared some of the images that were sent to me by Sheila Jones, who was at the event and passed through some excellent resources, including some photos of the celebration and futher details. They will be posted around the time of this post, so visit the blog to see more.

Andrew was born in 1945 in Cheltenham.

He was educated at Dean Close School (Cheltenham) and went on to Trinity Hall (Cambridge) to study geography (of course).

Qualifications:

B.A. Cambridge (1967) 

M.A. Cambridge (1971) 

M.A. Oxford (1971) 

Ph.D. Cambridge (1972) 

DSc. Oxford (2002)

These also included the highest grades, and distinctions.

Throughout his entire career he has worked as an Oxford academic, and is also the author of many books and papers on a range of topics, notably deserts, drylands and geomorphology.

He has held posts in a number of Oxford colleges including Master of St. Cross College and also Pro-Vice Chancellor. He has held visiting Professorships and posts in a number of other organisations as well. 

He was the first professional geographer to lead an Oxford college.

As with other former GA Presidents, he has a connection with the Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford.

He has advised numerous committees and other organisations as well.

He has been awarded a great many prestigious awards within the discipline of geography - these include:

• Cuthbert Peek Award of the Royal Geographical Society (1975) 
• Publications Award of the Geographical Society of Chicago (1983) 
• Founder’s Royal Medal of the Royal Geographical Society (1991) 
• Mungo Park Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (1991) 
• Gold Medal, Charles University, Prague (1998) 
• Prix de l’Académie Royale de Belgique (2002)
• Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology (2009) - named after another former GA President David Leslie Linton.

In many ways, Andrew also has a close connection with many of the GA Presidents of the 1930s-60s in that he has been involved in a great deal of advisory work at the very highest level, which have connected him with many learned societies in addition to the GA, and international bodies as well.

These have included:

British Academy, BGRG, RGS-IBG, Royal Society.

He was also involved in the Action Plan for Geography.

Outside of the academic world, he is also involved in CPRE and a Trustee of the Jurassic Coast Trust - both of which connect him to the work of other former GA Presidents of course, particulary Denys Brunsden.

He has had Editorial roles on a number of publications, and spoken at events around the world. He was linked with this 2018 BBC World Service broadcast.

Andrew has also led expeditions to places such as the Karakoram, Kenya and Australia. I am sure I remember seeing him and/or Denys Brunsden speaking about it at Sheffield University as a 6th former.

When he became the GA President, Andrew was a high profile academic and Professor of Geography at Oxford University - the university associated with the GA's founding a century earlier of course.

Andrew told me:

"I was charged with helping with the Centenary celebrations. 

I have given huge numbers of lectures to GA branches over the years. 

I established, with Denys Brunsden, the Classic Landforms series. "

These books have been best sellers from the GA Shop for some decades and are still available to purchase even now. Here's the Dark Peak volume, which I used myself when teaching, along with the White Peak volume, and the one on the North Norfolk coast. They are many people's first experience of GA publications and activity and will be found on the shelves of many geography departments around the country I am sure.

Andrew had written numerous articles for GA journals, particularly 'Teaching Geography' where he has tried to educate teachers in the correct approach to teaching about drylands.

Andrew said:

"I have always been a Geographer and have always believed that the state of geography in universities depends on attracting good sixth formers to become undergraduates."

This was an important factor in the decision to write my book 'Why Study Geography', which came out in October 2020.

Andrew's Presidential Lecture was called 'The Nature of Physical Geography: A View from the Drylands".

In it, Andrew talked about his career, and the importance of these often overlooked parts of the world, and some of the scholars who had come before and to whom he was indebted - a common theme for many Presidents.

Of landscapes, he said they are:

"one of the greatest gifts to human kind. Let us study them and therefore enjoy them and let us expose our students to great landscapes whether in Britain or overseas! Landscape has a great potential to stimulate interest in Geography in the young and in the lay person..."

He also referenced another former GA President: Sidney Wooldridge, speaking in 1949:

"By what right can we withhold a knowledge of how our terrestrial home is constructed, the meaning of its scenery and the patterns of its sky. The world contains not only factories, farms, railway sidings, market places etc but the blue hills on the skyline, the winding valleys which traverse them, russet bracken covered slopes and heather fells and the ever changing incident of long and varied coastlines."

He also predated the modern movement towards avoiding the use of the term "natural disasters". 

I have my No Natural Disasters badges and stickers.

He said:

"it is probably best no longer to use the term 'natural hazard' because many hazards are only quasi-natural"

Andrew has written on the theme of the divide between school and academic geography, and how this might be dealt with.

He also published a paper in The Canadian Geographer in 2016 on divisions between human and physical geography - another ongoing debate in the subject discipline.

Andrew remains as busy as ever.

I was interested to see that one of the PhD students that Andrew supervised was Rita Gardner, former Director of the Royal Geographical Society. Another was Nick Middleton, who has appeared on TV himself, talking about some of the world's extreme environments.

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. He lent me the letters that he had in reply and Andrew replied.

He says of his spark that it was:

"I was eight or nine and we had a family holiday that took us to Lyme Regis. I collected ammonites. I then got acute appendicitis and the minister at the Kirk in Cheltenham who gave me a book on fossils... When I was better I sought them out all over the Cotswolds."

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

References
Oxford University Staff Page - some details of Andrew's academic work.

Andrew provided me with a CV with hundreds of books, papers and other published output. Here are a few examples to jog your memory perhaps:

Why the Devil’s punchbowl dries up. Geographical Magazine 50(6), 381-386 (1978) (with M. J. Day) Chill winds over India. Geographical Magazine 411-416 (1979) 

Fearful landscape of the Karakoram. Geographical Magazine pp. 306-312 (1981) 

The disintegration of rock by mechanical processes. Teaching Geography 6, 176-179 (1981) 

Man, maker of landscapes. Geographical Magazine (1987)

If anyone has anything else to add about Andrew, and memories of his contributions to the GA, please get in touch.

Update March 2021

New Book Alert! The Queen of the Sciences: Geological Pioneers of the Jurassic Coast by Andrew Goudie and @CharmouthHCC Patron Denys Brunsden. Available now on our online shop: https://t.co/codaT1W1dg pic.twitter.com/lN3iGskiQr

— CharmouthHCC (@CharmouthHCC) March 30, 2021

Updated August 2023

Out in November 2022, in collaboration with Denys Brunsden. 

Details here from OUP.

1986: Professor Denys Brunsden

Last updated January 2024, with some sad news.

"Field time is your most precious time - how precious you will know only when its days are past" 

(Sauer, 1956)

Emeritus Professor Denys Brunsden is a legendary geomorphologist, whose work will be familiar to many, particularly with respect to coasts. He has also collaborated frequently with another former President: Andrew Goudie.

He was a leading person in the successful campaign for the designation of the Jurassic Coast as a World Heritage Site, acting as a Trustee for many years, and is now a Patron of this classic Coastal location - a venue for generations of geography fieldtrips, and classic case study in many textbooks. This has been a coastline which has been part of his life for decades.

Denys is still active, and this video is one that I have used each year for my teaching, looking at the potential impact of coastal erosion on the town of Lyme Regis, and the need to manage it. I try to get to Lyme Regis at least once a year, and we just managed it this year... Denys has written about this area in a large number of books and other papers.



The International Association of Geomorphologists, which Denys helped to instigate, has a Brunsden medal which is awarded annually for work in this area.

Denys was born close to the Jurassic Coast area as well, in Torquay in 1936.

He was educated at Torquay Boys Grammar School, before earning a place at King's College, London.

Here he is talking about his life at this time, and the influence of another GA President Sidney Wooldridge.

In 1956 I went up to Kings College, London, and was advised to study under Sidney Wooldridge, at that time the great geomorphologist. Geomorphology is the study of the shape of the earth, the landforms, and the processes that create them. I was mesmerised by his teaching, and being a bit more mature than the other students I worked harder and got a good degree. When I finished my degree, Wooldridge asked me if I’d like to join as a junior member of staff—straight out of graduation—and I jumped at it, teaching 6 hours of tutorials a week and completing my PhD at the same time. 

And there I stayed, for the rest of my working life, finishing up as Emeritus Professor and Fellow of the College. It has been my place.

I am sure that I remember Denys speaking about the Karakoram trip at Sheffield University when I was doing my 'A' level Geography around 1982 and we visited to hear the talk. I had the article clipped out of a magazine for some years.

Denys was a Professor of Geography when he became GA President. He has also worked as a consultant in Engineering Geomorphology.

From 'Bridport Life' in 2015:

"I was part of the British Geomorphological Research Group, a new growing group of “young Turks”. We were creating a new subject, writing all the textbooks, each one of us a specialist—one on deserts, one on glaciers, me on landslides. I was one of four people who started a company called Geomorphological Services Ltd—later we went on to create the International Association of Geomorphologists—and that took me to consultancies in some 28 countries and incredible situations; the Ok Tedi gold mine landslide disaster in Tibet; Papua New Guinea, the Dharan to Dhankula Highway in Nepal; all the work in Dubai surveying for the new airport and dry dock infrastructure, at a time when only 18,000 people lived there, there was no high-rise, and dhows were going back and forth across the creek. Even now I’m working for BP offshore looking at the sea bed for pipelines and well sites."

His Presidential Address was called 'The Science of the Unknown' and referred to the importance of fieldwork as well as other things.



There are quite a few quotes from this address relevant to my own proposed conference theme.

Denys explored some ideas that I've also used over the years when teaching CPD courses for the GA on fieldwork, local studies (heimatkunde) - which goes back to Keltie and Mackinder, and Physiography.
He also mentions Wooldridge who was a geologist turned geographer and had a great interest in fieldwork, which is something woven through the history of the GA. 

He also refers directly to some of the themes that had occupied his time as President of the Association with regard to the well-being of the subject.

Denys told me some other things about his time at the GA.

Denys told me about his various involvement in the GA, which is very impressive.

1956-9 Student Member 

1960-to date Member 

1962-7 Assistant Conference officer. All conferences and the annual Conference were held at the London School of Economics

1968. Published Dartmoor in the 'Geography through Maps' Series 

1968-74 Honorary Conference Officer. Annual at LSE. 

1968-74 Member Executive Committee. 

1974-79 Member of Council. 

1973-76 Member of the Organisation and Development Committee which re-organised the whole committee structure of the GA and much remains to this day. We also proposed the Council for British Geography (CoBRIG) and set up the new publications such as Primary Geography: Great movers in this period were Sheila Jones and Pat Cleverley. 

1975-78 Representative on the Council for Environmental Education for the GA

1984-6. Vice-President

1986-7. President

1987-8 Senior Past-President

1988 GA representative on the Nature Conservation Working Party for Science at the Dept. Educ. Science. 

Denys also organised the GA Consultation on the 'Future of Geography' with J. K. St Joseph, Minister for Education at the time.

I also asked Denys about his memories of other GA Presidents at the time. 

The longest serving was probably Alice Garnett. She 'owned it". The most faithful supporters were Robert Steele and all the Presidents of that time. 

The most influential in my time was Michael Wise (also a fabulous Treasurer), before that S.W.Wooldridge was a monumental presence and Dudley Stamp put the GA on a sound financial course especially with his advice to Michael and in many 'hidden' ways.

Denys also pointed out the particular influence that King's College, London has had on the development of the GA, in the same way as other key institutions which have kept cropping up through the last century or so that I have been blogging about. Those include LSE, Oxford University, Aberystwyth University, Manchester University and Sheffield University amongst others.

Denys told me:

You should mention the important role of the KCL/LSE contribution during the 1950-1990 period. The annual conferences were always held at LSE. 

The successive members of staff who did the work of organising conference included the following people, who I will try to find out more about.

Tom Elkins - Professor of Geography at the University of Sussex

Jim Bird

Peter O'Dell (or Odell)

Denys Brunsden 

David Jones

Barrie Morgan - strongly linked to King's College, London

https://www.strandlines.london/2012/08/01/memories-of-the-strand-dr-barrie-morgan/

David Green

A massive un-recognised contribution. Something for me to pursue further. 

We also all served on the lecture circuit, all of the academics (all universities) lectured to the branches and to school conferences. The link to Universities at that time was very strong.

Sheila Jones told me of the importance of the GA conference organiser in her messages to me, and mentioned that Denys helped organise her own conference.

Denys also got involved in the production of a Channel 4 TV series called Landshapes, which I remember using when I first started teaching as I had the series on video. It also included Rita Gardner - Director of the RGS-IBG, David Jones and Professor Andrew Goudie.

It was presented by Tim Preece.

It was made in 1988.

A series of seven programmes looking at the geomorphology of Britain and Ireland.

Part 1: The stiperstones of Shropshire, which are representative of some of the most ancient rocks found in the British Isles.
Part 2: The landscape created since the last Ice Age, concentrating mainly on Norfolk where the sands and gravels represent some of the youngest and weakest rocks of the British Isles.
Part 3: How the ice sheet influences land shapes in the mountainous regions of Britain, showing the glacial cradles of North Wales and the rivers estuaries of Ireland and Cornwall.
Part 4: The landscapes created by the melting waters of the Ice Age. Shows some spectacular scenery such as Devil’s Dyke, Cheddar Gorge and the waterfalls of Teeside.
Part 5: The erosion of the coastline caused by the sea undermining the soft rocks. Concentrates on southern and eastern England where land is being reclaimed by the sea.
Part 6: Because the British Isles lie on the edge of one of the earth’s plates, the 10,000 miles of coastline are very varied. The shoreline is shaped by the constant battle between the waves and the rocks.
Part 7: The effects of man’s actions on the landscape since his earliest ancestors used ‘slash and burn’ techniques to clear the ancient forests. Soil erosion caused by agriculture in places where the forest was completely felled created the wetland landscape. Human activity has thus changed the landscape sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

The episodes in bold are ones I remember using in my teaching. The music was very memorable as well.

References
Denys doesn't have a Wikipedia page, although he certainly deserves to have one. More recent GA Presidents don't have pages yet, perhaps that will be a follow up to this project.

Jurassic Coast website: https://jurassiccoast.org/trustees/prof-denys-brunsden/

http://www.marshwoodvale.com/people/2015/12/denys-brunsden/

http://www.bridportlife.co.uk/people/denys-brunsden/ - this has a range of fascinating information on Denys from his own words, including the fact his son plays bass in 'Hothouse Flowers'.... also goes into more detail on his work on the Jurassic Coast.

"Education is key; if people understand what they’re observing then they respect it, and from respect comes a sense of ownership, a stake in something which then has a far better chance of being looked after and conserved for the future."

Presidential Address: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40571619 - "The Science of the Unknown" (1987)

http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/11566/

A classic book here:

Source of image: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2onPDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA80&dq=cuchlaine%20king%20nottingham&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=true

https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/14879080.society-of-dorset-men-honour-for-professor-denys-brunsden/ - an award from the Society of Dorset Men.

Denys has written and contributed to a great many books, papers and articles.

I have a copy of this particular guide book of the Jurassic Coast he was involved in creating.

Denys also worked on a number of projects with another former GA President Andrew Goudie, who will be featured on the blog in a few weeks' time. He wrote an Atlas of the Environment of the UK with Andrew.

As always, if anyone has further information relating to Denys Brunsden please let me know so that I can expand on this post.

Top image: provided by Denys Brunsden, taken by Professor Jesse Walker of Louisiana State University

Update November 2020

Alan Kinder let me know that Denys first joined the GA in 1956, when Lord Nathan was the GA President - a very different era of Presidents to now.

A report on Deny's Conference was published in 'Geography' in 1988

Source:

Humphrys, Graham, et al. “Annual Report of The Geographical Association 1987.” Geography, vol. 73, no. 2, 1988, pp. 162–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571395. Accessed 14 Nov. 2020.

Some tweets:

Today over lunch, I revealed to the legend that is Prof Denys Brunsden my favourite paper of all time; Geomorphic Thresholds by Stanley Schumm from 1979. I was then treated to fabulous stories of their friendship ☺️ So what’s ur fave paper?! 😀 https://t.co/0vkHy1tD3t

— Dr Anjana Khatwa - #NDA2020 Finalist 😊 ✊🏽 (@jurassicg1rl) January 21, 2020

Professor Denys Brunsden (Emeritus Professor, King’s College, London).
He is one of the first Western scientists to witness the shrinking of the Aral Sea in Central Asia .

— Mian Muhammad Ali (@hassanch702) July 16, 2018

Black Ven and Spittles. The drawing shows the huge loss of land and cliffs and the position of the old roads and tracks that one time connected Lyme Regis and Charmouth.
(Source Geographical Magazine Feb 1969 written by the then young Prof Denys Brunsden of Chideock) pic.twitter.com/l2UAjmN9tN

— Nigel (@lymefossilsnet) June 27, 2018

Advice to young geomorphologists in his #IAG2013 keynote 'Think outrageously, be unconstrained'.

Update March 2021

New Book Alert! The Queen of the Sciences: Geological Pioneers of the Jurassic Coast by Andrew Goudie and @CharmouthHCC Patron Denys Brunsden. Available now on our online shop: https://t.co/codaT1W1dg pic.twitter.com/lN3iGskiQr

— CharmouthHCC (@CharmouthHCC) March 30, 2021 

Today over lunch, I revealed to the legend that is Prof Denys Brunsden my favourite paper of all time; Geomorphic Thresholds by Stanley Schumm from 1979. I was then treated to fabulous stories of their friendship ☺️ So what’s ur fave paper?! 😀 https://t.co/0vkHy1tD3t

— Dr Anjana Khatwa 💙 #NDA2020 Finalist 😊 ✊🏽 (@jurassicg1rl) January 21, 2020

Updated July 2022

A lovely piece written for the KCL Geography newsletter by Denys, now 85.

It provides a nice potted biography of his life and achievements, sixty years on from doing his degree.

Here's a lovely interview with Denys too:

Updated August 2023

New out in November 2022 from Denys and Andrew Goudie.

A sad update in January 2024.

Curious about Nature

I have previously blogged about the Field Studies Council's 75th Anniversary celebrations which were attended by quite a few former GA Presidents, and the Past and present GA President. They presented and were mentioned in other presentations, particularly one by Professor Tim Burt, my former tutor when I was an undergraduate at Huddersfield Polytechnic back in the day.

This event was also a launch event of a kind for a new book called 'Curious about Nature', which was written by Tim along with Des Thompson. This explores the development of field studies and the contributions of individuals. It is available to purchase from all good book shops, and a sample can be viewed on Google Books - see the link at the bottom of this post.

A few GA Presidents of note are mentioned in the book, when they had a link with the development of fieldwork.

There is a mention for Geoffrey Hutchings, the master of the fieldsketch.

This is followed by a paragraph on the influence of Sidney Wooldridge and Dudley Stamp.

There is also a picture of J A Steers, which I was after for ages until Andrew Goudie found me one - I have added this, along with other information to an update on the post for J A Steers elsewhere on this blog. Use the SEARCH function to find any previous Presidents.

A review from the present GA President Gill Miller, who has been associated with FSC for many years:

'This book amply delivers its strapline 'passion for fieldwork'. With its informal yet informed writing, this eclectic collection of practitioners and research findings provides something for everyone. There is no denying its central message, that field studies inspire and ignite curiosity and remain central to our guardianship of the planet.' 

Gill Miller, President of The Geographical Association, 2019-20

Source:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2onPDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA80&dq=cuchlaine%20king%20nottingham&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=cuchlaine%20king%20nottingham&f=false

1965: Miss Marguerita Oughton

Although this blog is aimed at telling the stories of the GA Presidents, there are numerous other names which reappear through the documents I've been reading, and I've filtered mentions for many of them into the blog over the last year or so.

In 1964, Miss Marguerita Oughton resigned.She had been linked with the GA for many years, and was given a glowing send off.
She was described by Rex Walford as a 'kingpin' of the GA. She gave 14 years of service to the GA as Assistant Secretary and Assistant Editor.
She was the subject of a five page tribute to her in 'Geography' by Professor Linton (President for 1964) which described the impact she had on the Association.

It would be lovely to try to source an image of Marguerita Oughton if at all possible.

On appointment she began a measure of re-organization of the work and filing in the headquarters office, but at once found herself involved in the larger re-organization required by the change of the Association's subscription year from the calendar year to the school and academic year, and by the preparation of the Association's accounts for a firm of auditors. At the same time the publication dates of Geography were changed to fit better with school and university term dates and the programme of editorial work in the office had also to be re-adjusted.

It's a reminder that over the years the GA has benefitted from so many strong female administrators, editors and other roles.

Not only did Miss Oughton have the admiration of Linton but also other prominent GA members.

Professor Wooldridge
In the early summer schools Miss Oughton played a more direct and personal part. The first, at Rhoose, Glamorgan, with Dr. Margaret Davies in 1952, was a vigorous introduction to course organization that left her with a conviction that there are few things that the Association can do for many of its members that are better worth while than the provision of practical courses in fieldwork and field teaching methods in our own countryside. 
This conviction was enhanced by the stimulating experience of assisting the late Professor Wooldridge at a summer school at Pulborough in the Sussex Weald in the following year. Of this I was to hear a good deal in my own home not many weeks later from Wooldridge himself. He confessed to being "much impressed by that young woman", who had obviously handled him, as she had handled any difficult members of the party, with firmness and sympathy, and had surprised him with what he called an "unfeminine capacity for administrative detail." It is not difficult to detect here a note of admiration and affection on Wooldridge's part that remained with him in some measure till his death.

H J Fleure

Geoffrey Hutchings
In Geoffrey Hutchings' last letter to me, written from hospital shortly before he died, contains a casual but sincere and telling tribute to her work with him. Indeed, it was the rule that Miss Oughton established easy working and personal relationships with a succes- sion of Presidents and leaders of conferences and summer schools. And it was equally the rule that she became the friend of many who would call them- selves the rank and file of the Association

After the sad and untimely death of her mother Miss Oughton lived entirely alone and so gradually fell into the bad habit of working late at the office, commonly till 8 or 9 p.m. to keep abreast of the administrative work, and taking mountains of editorial paper home to be worked through at week-ends. She had an intense loyalty to the subject and to the Association. Although at two different periods she thought of leaving it and applied for posts of other kinds, it is within my knowledge that when, in fact, posts were offered to her she refused them, rather than give up the work.

She also featured in this book in connection with Ellen Rickard. Ellen will have her own post on the blog.



References

Linton, David L. “Miss Marguerita Oughton: An Appreciation.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 2, 1965, pp. 172–176. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565934. Accessed 27 Mar. 2020

1964: Professor David Leslie Linton

Last updated October 2023

"Mankind must be made much more aware of the world it lives in, its rigorous limitations and its limited possibilities. Above all it must be assisted and persuaded to think of the world as a whole"

D. L. Linton

David Leslie Linton was a Professor of Geographer at the University of Sheffield, and a renowned geomorphologist. His name lives on in the form of prizes in this field.


He was a close colleague of Professor Alice Garnett who, we will discover, was the beating heart of the GA for many years, following her taking up the post of Honorary Secretary in 1947 and overseeing the GA's move to Sheffield in 1950.

Alice Garnett later became GA President four years after Linton.

Linton was a geomorphologist, and also did some influential work with another former GA President: Sidney Wooldridge.

He was born, apparently, in a grocers' shop on the Old Kent Road, to Irish parents, and went on from there to Haberdasher's Aske's school. 

He was a gifted musician, and apparently wanted to do a degree in Chemistry originally. 

He was also a keen artist, and sketched the landscape, from where the geomorphological features emerged, waiting to be explained. In the 1930s, he was active with the Le Play Society, leading fieldtrips to locations including Iceland. This Society was very much tied up with the early history of the GA.

Linton went to King's College, London and was persuaded by Sidney Wooldridge (who was working as a Demonstrater at the time) to add geography to his subjects for his degree, and he was drawn into the exciting geomorphology work that was being done at the time. This university has been linked to quite a few GA Presidents, notably another geomorphologist Denys Brunsden.

He spent the war (1940-1945) with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve working in aerial photography interpretation - solid work for a geographer, and which gave him a deep knowledge of landscapes. There is definitely a book here to trace the work of the geographers who were later linked with the GA in the post-war period. It seems that he was rather good at this sort of work as his obituary explained:



After the war, he went over to check out the sites, and was just about tracked down by the University of Sheffield, who wanted to interview him for a post there where he was appointed as Professor of Geography.

Summary of his career:

King's College London, BSc (Geography), 1927, MSc, 1930; DSc 1945; Demonstrator in Geography and Geology, University of London, 1927-1929; Lecturer in Geography, University of Edinburgh, 1929-1945; served in the RAF (Photographic Intelligence), 1940-1945; Professor of Geography, University of Sheffield, 1945-1958; DSc, 1955; Professor of Geography, University of Birmingham, from 1958; William Evans Visiting Professor, University of Otago, 1959; Honorary Editor of Geography, the Quarterly Journal of the Geographical Association , 1945-1965; President of the Institute of British Geographers, 1962, and of the Geographical Association, 1964; Fellow of King's College London (FKC), 1971; received the Murchison Award, Royal Geographical Society, 1943.

What an impressive CV...

At a meeting in Sheffield (with Wooldridge and others) in 1958, he was a founder member of what became the British Geomorphological Research Group, which he chaired in 1961, and also a founder member of the Institude of British Geographers. He became President of the IBG in 1962.

Linton was honorary editor of the GA's 'Geography' journal too, between 1947 and 1965, and his name appears in numerous copies of 'Geography' in the front matter and also in the pages.

He contributed a range of articles to the journal 'Geography' through the 1940s and 1950s. One was on the rise of the million city - I wonder what he would have made of the rapid rise of megacities, particularly in China.



He also wrote a piece on Geography and the Social Revolution in 1957 in 'Geography'.
His Presidential Address. published in 1965 was on 'The Geography of Energy'


The address included some classic illustrations such as this one.


It also finished with an important message for all teachers.



I remember that he also developed a theory of the formation of Tors, and was taken to the quarry where this theory was apparently first visualised when on an undergraduate fieldtrip at Two Bridges on Dartmoor.

I've visited the quarry here. It's on the path to Wistman's Wood.



Tor formation theory is shown below, in an influential textbook of the time by David Waugh, who is mentioned elsewhere on the blog.



In 1964, he became President of the Geographical Association - probably quite a coup for the GA at the time given how prominent and busy he was.

Linton died unexpectedly in 1971, when he was nearing retirement at the end of a long career while in post at the University of Birmingham. He was still very active.


Obituary published in several journals.

A tribute to him was written by Alice Garnett and published in 1966 on the occasion of his retirement as Honorary Editor.


He received the RGS's Murchison Award.

References
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Linton_(geographer)

I amended this to add in his GA Presidency, as I have done to all entries for former Presidents.

Address: LINTON, D. L. “The Geography of Energy.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 3, 1965, pp. 197–228. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567042
Obituary:
“David Leslie Linton.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, no. 55, 1972, pp. 171–178. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/621729

Garnett, Alice. “A Tribute to D. L. Linton: Honorary Editor 1947-65.” Geography, vol. 51, no. 1, 1966, pp. 65–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40566046. Accessed 12 Apr. 2020.
LESZCZYCKI, STANISLAW, and David L. Linton. “The Development of Geography in the People's Republic of China.” Geography, vol. 48, no. 2, 1963, pp. 139–154. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565574.

LINTON, DAVID L. “Geography and the Social Revolution.” Geography, vol. 42, no. 1, 1957, pp. 13–24. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563897

LINTON, DAVID L. “Millionaire Cities To-Day and Yesterday.” Geography, vol. 43, no. 4, 1958, pp. 253–258. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564208
Linton, David L. “THE LANDFORMS OF LINCOLNSHIRE.” Geography, vol. 39, no. 2, 1954, pp. 67–78. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564569
https://www.ed.ac.uk/geosciences/about/history/school-history

https://kingscollections.org/catalogues/kclca/collection/l/10li50-1

https://web.archive.org/web/20080820001049/http://www.geomorphology.org.uk/pages/about/history/
https://www.geomorphology.org.uk/sites/default/files/Geophemera%20101.pdf

Linton, David L. “THE TREELESSNESS OF THE ṪUNDRA.” Geography, vol. 48, no. 1, 1963, pp. 80–81. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565512.

Image of Haytor - copyright Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license
Image of Linton from the Balchin Centenary Book

Update August 2020
In 2017, my own degree tutor and former lecturer at Huddersfield Polytechnic: Professor Tim Burt was awarded the Linton Award
https://www.dur.ac.uk/geography/news/allgeognews/?itemno=31007

Updated October 2023 with a quote at the start of the post.

He worked to locate V1 and V2 launch sites which is a remarkable period of history for him to have been involved with.

1960: Professor Arthur Austin Miller

Updated October 2023.

A(rthur) Austin Miller was the first GA President of the 1960s - an era of great change for the Association

As with other Presidents in the decades following the Second World War, he had a military background as well as his academic one, and he had served during the First World War, in the Royal Flying Corps (although the war ended when he had just passed his 18th birthday) so he waited for the Second World War to go flying again, when he again saw active service. I wonder how many GA Presidents did that.

He was originally intending to study chemical engineering (similar to David Leslie Linton - the President in 1964), but became a geologist instead initially.
He was inspired to do this partly by lectures from another influential former GA President: E. J. Garwood.

He worked at Reading University, where he was described as a "doyen of geographical climatology."

He was a key contributor to a conference session on the future of geography in schools as long back as 1945, which was chaired by another former President Sidney Wooldridge, showing a long-term connection with the GA. Wooldridge seems to have mentored quite a few people who went on to become GA President.

Miller also served on the GA's council for several years during the 1940s and held several roles, as did many GA Presidents during this time - in fact deep involvement in the GA is a prerequisite for being elected as GA President really.

Miller was also a founding member of the Institute of British Geographers in 1933, joining several other GA Presidents in that respect in their link with this body, which later merged with the RGS to form the current RGS-IBG, and later became President.
This article provides a great deal more information about his role in the IBG.

Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270 - source of the image above

Miller's IBG Presidential Address was given in 1948, and was on the dissection and analysis of maps.



He talks about the value of maps to geographers....


I liked the explanation that there were 24 lantern slides used to illustrate this lecture (although they weren't produced in Transactions sadly, although links to places where they had been published were included)

He also described the early days of geographers using the statistician's tools and introducing some numeracy.

Hugh Robert Mill is mentioned here too.



In 1947, he wrote an article for the GA's journal 'Geography' where he talked about the importance of exploring current affairs (an early mention for the idea of 'floating topicality' that Jeff Stanfield has talked about).
Here's a section from the article:

 Geography, Alive and Dead : the Teacher and the Text-book 

Although we pride ourselves that we have left behind the devastating dullness of the old geography it still happens sometimes that pupils, generally the duller and less imaginative among them, lose interest. And whose fault can this be but our own ? 

Often the root cause is too great a reliance on the text-book, which, of necessity, must attempt to reduce a complex scene to simplicity, order and tidiness ; life withers and the sap dries up in the process.
We read an account, in an advanced text-book, of the South Wales coalfield.

Within the few thousand words it can afford it is compelled to compress the geological structure, the types of coal, the output, the valley forms, the resultant settlement pattern, the communications, the industries, the exports and much more. These, of course, are very important, and constitute the minimum of firm knowledge that the pupil should retain. But what sort of a picture does it give of "man's" life in a pit village ?

It tells him nothing of the daily round, the long tramp or ride to the pithead, the sickening drop in the cage, the darkness until the eyes accustom to the dimness underground, the long dirty walk to the coal face, the distant rumble of the tub train approaching, the deafening bombardment of noise at the coal face by pneumatic picks and conveyor belt, the hewer stripped to the waist with the sweat trickling into his eyes and the, black smear of coal dust where he wipes it away with the back of his hand, the crouching in the darkness waiting for the shots to be fired, the anxious counting of the explosions, the danger of roof-falls and explosion of gas, the bravery and self-sacrifice of rescue parties, the tragedy and heroism of men and families in distress or disaster, and, up above, the mean rows of insanitary cottages, the open drains, the long sidings full of waiting trucks, the hiss of steam and the clang of shunting engines, the great wheels spinning as the cage rushes up or down the shaft, the unemployment, the pubs, the clubs, the pithead baths, the dispensaries, the tuberculosis, the silicosis, the black lungs, and skin ingrained with coal dust, the football, the choirs, the dogs, the Sunday afternoons, the fresh air and the sunshine or rain out on the windy hilltops only a mile away, the fouling of nature by "man."

These are the flesh and blood needed to clothe the stark skeleton of the text-book summary and these the teacher can and must supply.
But how ?
Partly by using his own knowledge to amplify and vivify the text with lively description ; partly by giving reading of a wide scope, and partly by appealing through the eye with visual aid.

Those comments all seem reasonable.

Miller's GA Presidential Address was given in 1960, on Climate and the Geomorphic Cycle.



In the GA Annual Report of 1960, he was thanked for his hard work and attention to business. 

Membership had passed 5000 during this time, and was continuing its upward course.

During this year, a former President Lord Nathan had been working on redrafting the constitution of the Association, and worked on some Statutes and Standing Orders. The Governing Body, on which the President now serves explores and updates these documents which underpin the running of the Association.

Miller published several papers, and wrote a book on Climatology, and others on Everyday Meteorology and one called 'The Skin of the Earth'.

In 1945, for example, he contributed to a debate about the future of Geography at the first post-war Annual Conference. This was reported in 'Geography' as shown below:

I came across a copy of A Austin Miller's book on 'Climatology' in an Oxfam bookshop in Norwich.

From his Obituary:



As with many other Presidents of the Geographical Association, there were also connections with the Royal Geographical Society.
Miller was awarded their Murchison Medal for this contributions to geography.

He was also the first Miller to be president, with the current President Gill Miller sharing the surname.

References
GA Annual Report 1960
Obituary
https://www.jstor.org/stable/621417?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Linton, David L. “Obituary: Emeritus Professor A. Austin Miller.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 134, no. 3, 1968, pp. 467–469. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1793043 - obituary by another former GA president.
Volume in his honour (scanned so lots of text errors, but readable - mentions of various other past Presidents early on, and foreword by L. Dudley Stamp - https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.111768/2015.111768.Essays-In-Geography-For-Austin-Miller_djvu.txt )

“GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION. Annual Conference Discussions on the Future for Geography.” Geography, vol. 30, no. 2, 1945, pp. 50–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563427

Miller, A. Austin. “THE GEOGRAPHER AND CURRENT AFFAIRS.” Geography, vol. 32, no. 2, 1947, pp. 77–83. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40546378

Miller, A. Austin. “The Dissection and Analysis of Maps: Presidential Address.” Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers), no. 14, 1948, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/621257.

MILLER, A. AUSTIN. “Climate and the Geomorphic Cycle: Address to the Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 46, no. 3, 1961, pp. 185–197. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40565260

Stoddart, D. R. “Progress in Geography: The Record of the I. B. G.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 8, no. 1, 1983, pp. 1–13. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/622270 - source of the image above

A copy of his book 'The Skin of the Earth' is shown below.



A fairly brief entry - let me know if you have further information on A Austin Miller.

Image: thanks to Professor Andrew Goudie (another former GA President) for sourcing the top image of Arthur Austin Miller for me, along with some other Presidents - much appreciated.

Update August 2021

Interesting tweet with a family connection added here, with his daughter Lindsey:

This XR rebel is Lindsey - daughter of Arthur Austin Miller, author of Climatology & geographer at Reading Uni @UniRdg_GES. She was delighted to hear meteorology is still going strong there, tho she wasn't aware of @ed_hawkins climate stripes.@XRebellionUK #ExtinctionRebellion pic.twitter.com/2eW134vyKy

— Dr Varyl Thorndycraft (@VarylT) October 9, 2019

Updated October 2023

He was linked with Section E of the British Association - a very important aspect of the development of geography which is a thread running through the careers of quite a few GA Presidents.

In I956 he became President of Section E of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a member of the Association's Committee until 1965.

It sounds like he would have been up for a pint...

He co-authored this article from 1930.

An interesting story about a paper of Miller's that got rejected from the journal of Irish Geography: read the full paper here

http://78.137.164.74/~geograph/irishgeography/v37-1/herries.pdf

He had a daughter called Shirley who graduated from New Hall college, Cambridge.