1935: James Fairgrieve

Last update August 2023

"Anyone who leaves school without geography as part of their education cannot be considered to be fully educated..."
(1926)

Quoted by David Lambert in a conference lecture (see link at the end of the piece)

James Fairgrieve was a geographer, and author, and prior to taking up the Presidency, he had held several roles within the Association and, as so often, his name appears on the minutes of many meetings and gatherings. He was one of the most significant people in the GA's history and development and many of his documents are in the GA Archives.

He is perhaps best known for his books Geography and World Power (1915) and Geography in School (1926), which were popular at the time of publication, although he wrote others.

James was a British geographer, born in 1870, and had a long career as a teacher too, which is good to see in a GA President, and is still relatively rare. He died in the 1950s.
Fairgrieve originally had no formal training in geography, but took part-time courses in geography at the London School of Economics.

These courses were taught by geographer and geopolitician Halford Mackinder (GA President in 1916, and one of the most influential geographers of the early 20th century).
From that point forward, Fairgrieve devoted his life's work to geography (according to his Wikipedia page)
He was appointed a geography master in 1907 at the William Ellis School. He is described as "bubbling with fresh ideas and astonishing energy". He set up a geographical laboratory at the school and also wrote many textbooks. His commitment to pedagogy was equal to that of geography. He was a long way from the 'Capes and Bays' of the day, and looked at active teaching methods, and lots of fieldwork in the local area.

He is quoted as saying: "We must work from the known to the unknown, not like some teachers - work from the unknown the unknowable."

The full quote goes:

From the known to the unknown

From the simple to the complex

From the indefinite to the definite

From the particular to the general

During the First World War, he wrote 'Geography and World Power'.

Fairgrieve was an intellectual disciple of the great British geopolitical thinker Sir Halford Mackinder, and borrowed some of Mackinder’s concepts in formulating his own geopolitical worldview. Fairgrieve factored into his geopolitical analyses topography, location, climate, relative population density, the distribution of energy, the ease or difficulty of movement, and political and social organization.

Geography and World Power traced the impact of geographical conditions on the course of history, beginning with the desert, marsh and steppe lands of Egypt and Mesopotamia; to the near and readily accessible regions of Palestine and Phoenicia; to Greece, Carthage, and Rome; to the forest lands of Germany and Russia; to the great plain of Eurasia from which nomadic tribes invaded the settled peoples of Europe; to the lands of Arabia from which Mohammedans attempted to convert the known world to Islam; to the age of exploration and the discovery of the New World; to the African grasslands; to the Monsoon lands of China and India.
In 1918, he wrote a piece against environmental determinism called 'Geographical Control'.

He was also a predecessor of former GA Chief Executive David Lambert at the Institute of Education.

As with many other geographers who became President, there was a connection with previous Presidents, and the work of the RGS-IBG.

During the late 1920s and through the 30s, James Fairgrieve worked on developing support materials for teachers to help in their use of educational films. I have blogged about this work separately here.

In 1926, he published his main book "Geography in School". It attracted a lot of interest, as did his definition of Geography. It can be downloaded as a PDF from the Archive.org website. It ran to several editions.

"The function of Geography is to train future citizens to imagine accurately the conditions of the great world stage and so help them think sanely about political and social problems in the world around."

His book, and teaching approaches inspired a generation of geography teachers.
Here it is, from the GA collection


Fairgrieve later led a group of voluntary workers who watched a huge range of educational films to look at their potential for classroom use.
He served on the GA's council for several years during the 1940s, including as Chair of the GA Council in 1947.

He was a relatively rare GA President in that he was a teacher for pretty much all of his career, but had retired before taking office.

Fairgrieve was a Geography Master at William Ellis School, joining in 1907, a school which had a remarkable Geography classroom. 

I have been given some wonderful images of this classroom by Chris Willey, a Historian of the school - these will feature in a future post.

I also discovered that he was succeeded as a Geography Master by another former GA President: Leonard Brooks, who we will come to in due course, when I shall also share some of the images.

In 1931, he wrote about broadcasting in schools.


Fairgrieve's Presidential Address explored the themes of pedagogy in a way that other previous GA Presidents hadn't really. It was simply called 'Can we teach Geography better?'


Save your money on some of the new teaching books that have emerged and read this address instead.
The first suggestion he has is that we need to let others see us teach and have the chance to see others teach in return.


We also have to spread a love for geography in our subjects or we have failed in our job.
Feed your geographical caterpillars geographical cabbage and they will soon learn to fly.


Remember to move from the known to the unknown, he says. Go from simple to complex. Move from concrete to abstract. There is a place for wonder.

Fairgrieve travelled to Scandinavia on an Orient Line ship in the 1920s and contributed a large number of lantern slides of images from that trip into the GA's collection.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00221345408982534?needAccess=true

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Europe_and_Britain.html?id=OmJMAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

Read about 'Geography and World Power'

https://thediplomat.com/2015/04/geography-and-world-power-at-100/

This is a very enjoyable address and worth reading. Fairgrieve continued to attend GA meetings for another 20 years after his Presidency, according to Rex Walford, "able to attend meetings only with the help, successively, of sticks, wheelchair and basket bed". 

Quite a commitment to the Association indeed!

Fairgrieve died in 1953, active to the very last within the GA.

References

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Fairgrieve

I amended this entry to add reference to the GA Presidency role, as I have for all Presidents when that information was missing.

FAIRGRIEVE, J. “GEOGRAPHIC CONTROL.” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 9, no. 4, 1918, pp. 189–192. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40554568.
Mentioned in: https://www.geography.org.uk/write/MediaUploads/Journals/Boardman_McPartland_Building_on_the_foundations.pdf

Fairgrieve, J. “USE OF BROADCASTING IN TEACHING GEOGRAPHY IN SCHOOLS.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 34–44. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40557798.
Fairgrieve commented on by David Lambert in a lecture here. (from 2015)

https://thediplomat.com/2015/04/geography-and-world-power-at-100/ - Geography and World Power

Also had a section in Rex Walford's book p.97-9

Fairgrieve, J. “CLOUD AND RAIN.” Geography, vol. 27, no. 1, 1942, pp. 31–33. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562174.
Boardman, David, and Michael McPartland. “A Hundred Years of Geography Teaching: Building on the Foundations: 1893—1943.” Teaching Geography, vol. 18, no. 1, 1993, pp. 3–6. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23754476.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/pluginfile.php/631169/mod_resource/content/1/geog_sk6_06t_5.pdf - an interesting perspective by Bill Marsden

FAIRGRIEVE, J. “CAN WE TEACH GEOGRAPHY BETTER?” Geography, vol. 21, no. 1, 1936, pp. 1–17. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40559408.

As always, if anyone has further information relating to James Fairgrieve and his work for the GA, please let me know so that I can expand on this post.

Update
Here's an image of a contemporary Geography classroom from Fairgrieve's book, reproduced in Rex Walford's 'Geography in British Schools 1850-2000'



Update - late October

Here's a silent educational film from 1925 - of a village in the Punjab



Made by British Instructional Films Ltd of Surbiton Surrey and apparently approved by James Fairgrieve and the Geographical Association.


Can be viewed here...



And here's one of a Mediterranean island...

Updated January 2021

Fairgrieve also featured in the Presidential Address of the 1996 President Ashley Kent, where he outlined his life and also the strong connections between the IoE and the GA. It is well worth reading to get an idea for the links and the changing nature of Geography. Ashley's Presidential Address was given at the Institute of Education.

KENT, ASHLEY. “Challenging Geography: A Personal View.” Geography, vol. 82, no. 4, 1997, pp. 293–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572948. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

He provides additional detail on Fairgrieve's life.

"A central figure in the long struggle for the subject to which he gave a life of enthusiastic work"

H. J. Fleure (1953)

Updated April 2021

Fairgrieve seems to have spent 1921 out of the country according to this piece in 'The Geographical Teacher'

Updated June 2021

Videos made by James Fairgrieve in the BFI's film collection.

Aberystwyth University has a Prize named after James Fairgrieve.

Updated August 2021

I have been exploring some of Fairgrieve's lantern slides over the last month for a project called 'A Geographer's Gaze'

Updated July 2022

A remarkable piece of film from the 1930s.

Filmed by Scottish geographer James Fairgrieve
Scenes from Abbottabad, St. Luke's Church etc. https://t.co/iGRE9KSe82

— Ali Asghar Khan (@AliAsgharPTI) February 3, 2019

Updated August 2023

Neville Scarfe's influences included James Fairgrieve, who he described as 

"a down to earth geographer bent on assisting students to imagine world characteristics accurately, the better to imagine political and social problems"

 

1930s: Geography and Films

During the 1930s, a new classroom aid appeared in the shape of educational films.
The 1928 conference saw the arrival of some work in this area as having great potential.
This was spearheaded by a future GA President: James Fairgrieve.
Fairgrieve worked with volunteers to explore the potential of cinema, even hosting an event at the Annual Conference in 1928.

People like Jon Grierson started to make documentary films, which had more geographical potential than other films. Films like 'Night Mail' (1936) were the result of his work. These were less than 30 minutes and were useful in the classroom. Modern teachers like short clips rather than feature length films (unless it's the last week of term).

Fairgrieve worked widely with London based teachers to promote the use of films.

Radio broadcasts were also started around this time too. I remember tuning in to the assembly at Primary school, and having the programme lead what we did.

In 1931, Fairgrieve wrote about the use of films.






This was well before Bernard Clarke and the rest...

References

“How B.B.C. Lectures and Films Are Utilised.” Geography, vol. 15, no. 8, 1930, pp. 672–672. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40559754.

Fairgrieve, J. “USE OF BROADCASTING IN TEACHING GEOGRAPHY IN SCHOOLS.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 34–44. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40557798.

James Fairgrieve - cartoons from 1907!

Chris Willey, historian from William Ellis School has been extraordinarily helpful in providing details of two GA Presidents: Leonard Brooks and James Fairgrieve

James Fairgrieve is the feature of this cartoon. It was drawn by an artist with the initials FCW in 1907 (the year that Fairgrieve joined the school staff)

This was one of a series of staff cartoons prepared in 1907 by the 'unknown' artist FCW, assumed by to be a fellow member of staff or perhaps a student. 

The images were mounted and probably displayed in the staff room at Allcroft Road, NW5. 

A second one shows the Headmaster at the time: Edward Boyce Cumberland, who had appointed Fairgrieve to the staff, and his dog.



Image copyright: William Ellis School, and used with permission.

1951: Leonard Brooks

Major update March 2026 - see later

On going through the list of past GA presidents, it is rare to just see the two names of the person without them being preceded by Sir or Professor, or followed by strings of letters and awards, particularly during the first fifty years of the Association. 
This has changed a little in recent decades. I am pleased to have broken some recent trends in the Presidency, and I certainly don't have any of those titles (yet)

Leonard Brooks was President in 1951, following Professor L Dudley Stamp. This must have been a challenge in itself to follow on from such a well-known figure, but it seems like Mr. Brooks was up to the challenge, and had a different energy.

He had earlier been involved in a significant event for geography.

In 1945, the new Director of the RGS: Lt Col L. P. Kirwin, aided by Leonard Brooks, established a new era of co-operation between the three geographical societies (the GA, IBG, RGS).

The House of the RGS, which escaped undamaged from the war, was made available to both other societies. It was used for conferences for some years, such as in 1951, when Brooks became the President. This is an interesting moment in the shared history of the two organisations.

Here is Leonard Brooks in an image including some other GA notaries. The gentleman in the black overcoat and white scarf second from the left is Frank Debenham, who was President the following year (it was the 70th anniversary of Debenham's Presidency in 2022 - my own Presidential conference year - and he got a mention).
Third from the left is Leonard Brooks, with the spectacles. On his left is the unmistakeable H J Fleure.

Image from Balchin's centenary volume.



Leonard Brooks served on the GA's council for several years during the 1940s and his name appears in 'Geography' numerous times during this period.


This greater collaboration between the GA and RGS-IBG is something I hope to work on over the years to come, as I did previously as part of the Action Plan for Geography Team, and since on various projects. 

Brooks wrote and co-wrote a series of books on Regional geographies of the World, this one pictured with Robert Finch.
Brooks had a lot of teaching experience, which is also excellent to see, as well as plenty of experience in school inspection.

At the time of his Presidential lecture, Brooks had spent 15 years as a teacher, and 26 years in school inspection.

Brooks' Presidential Lecture was on the theme of 'Some thoughts on the Present day teaching of Geography in schools".



I like how he started by saying that if delegates read Fleure's pamphlet from 33 years earlier on 'Geography in Education' he would find that things had come round full circle. It was ever thus.

He proposes to do 2 things in his Presidential address which would still make a good focus for any CPD session.



The talk is well worth reading. It touches on a great many things which one can hear talked about at teacher conferences today, over 70 years later.

I don't agree with everything he has to say, but nine times out of ten he is fairly spot on.

His obituary talks about the work he did connecting the GA with the RGS, acting as liaison between the two organisations.



One of the projects that Leonard Brooks started (along with another President Sydney Suggate) was  to develop a scheme where schools could "adopt" ships and send letters to their Captains. It was called the Ship Adoption Society.
This provided a chance for students to write to, and receive letters from ships' crews travelling around the world. This was a great initiative.

I was unable to find an image of Leonard Brooks other than the one above, so had to do some digging, and contact various people.

Brooks' obituary by Fleure and Suggate outlines some further details on his earlier life and career, having been born in Lancashire.

In 1955, he was awarded an OBE "for services to Geography".

I think we should see that sort of citation more often in Honours Lists. I can think of a few people who have done a great deal for the subject but haven't been honoured yet (unless they were, and turned it down).

References

Fleure, H. J., and L. S. Suggate. “Leonard Brooks.” Geography, vol. 50, no. 1, 1965, pp. 82–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567028. Obituary details.

Presidential Address:
Brooks, Leonard. “SOME THOUGHTS ON PRESENT DAY TEACHING OF GEOGRAPHY IN SCHOOLS: Address to the Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 37, no. 2, 1952, pp. 63–71. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40564773.

If anyone knows more information about Leonard Brooks, please get in touch, as with other posts on this blog. I'm particularly keen to get a larger image too, as he is one of the very few Presidents I don't have a high quality image of.

I decided to pursue the school route here.
William Ellis School was mentioned in his obituary.
I found this image on their website - I taught in a room with a similar vibe early in my career, and my own school days were in a room with one of those globes in the corner, which tended to get stuck in position. There were also roller boards, and a raised dais at the front, and heavy dark wood furniture with moldings on the top. I like the addition of explorers names around the top of the walls.


The copyright for this image is the London Metropolitan Archive, and the teacher is named as V C Spary. Spary was also connected with the GA, and helped organise the conference for some years.

I was contacted by school archivist/historians after sending an e-mail and they have been very helpful.
My heartfelt thanks to Christopher Willey, Jim Corbett and Fiona McWilliam.

The source of the following section, sent to me by Chris Willey, is principally the school history (T D Wickenden, William Ellis School 1862-1962, privately printed).

It includes something on the purpose built Geography room of 1913. I see that it is recorded as the inspiration of James Fairgrieve, the senior Geography master who preceded Leonard (and another former GA President who has his own entry on the blog)

Imagine following in Fairgrieve's footsteps as a Geography teacher.

The information about Leonard in Wickenden is as below. This also makes a connection with James Fairgrieve:

Appointed by E B Cumberland in 1912 Leonard Brooks succeeded James Fairgrieve as the Endowed school’s Geography teacher. He was ‘… a writer of textbooks, an eminent Inspector of the London County Council and a Fellow and one time Honorary Treasurer of the Royal Geographical Society. In all this and as a Governor, in which capacity he is still with us, the School owes Mr. Brooks a great debt.’ (p75)

‘Early in 1916 the School was asked to join a new Cadet Battalion then being formed in the Borough of St Pancras; for various reasons that was not acceptable but it led to negotiations as a result of which the School threw in its lot with the 1st Cadet Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, City of London Regiment and constituted ‘D’ Company. Mr Leonard Brooks, the geography master, was an inspiring Captain and Company Commander …’ (p100)

‘Mr. Brooks went to the London County Council in 1920 and was almost immediately engaged with another ex-master, Mr. Beresford Ingram, in organising the new Day Continuation Schools.’ (p116)

During the later 1930s:

‘Partly an outside activity, and partly educational in keeping with the School’s reputation in the teaching of geography was the ‘adoption’ by the School of the S.S. Willesden. 

Mr. Leonard Brooks, then a Senior Inspector of the London County Council, was largely responsible for the ship adoption scheme and for William Ellis being one of the first four schools participating in it. The object was to bring geography ‘alive’ by following the course of the ship in its journeys and its trading – maintaining a chart of the ship’s movements, a logbook of progress, records of cargoes together with their origin, destination, and processing for shipment, and so on. … A steady correspondence between the Captain of the ship and the boys was a principal source of information and interest. 

 Files, charts and posters were kept in the Geography Room and were available there for inspection and use by any boy who wished. The association, first with Captain Anderson and then Captain Martin, was a very happy one for they were good letter writers and went to great pains to answer the host of questions sent them, and in arranging visits to the Willesden; talking with the crew was of special interest to the boys on these occasions. The owners presented a large model of the S.S. Willesden to the School, a gift greatly appreciation. 

Just before the outbreak of war, the P&O liner Stratheden was adopted as a second ship..'

The Stratheden seems to have survived the war: here is a picture of a school visit to the ship led or accompanied by AP Smith in the early 1950s, a revival of the ship adoption scheme, at the least 'in spirit'.



More images to come of the Geography classrooms at WES in due course in a separate blog post... they are really excellent.

Leonard will have taught in the dedicated Geography room at Allcroft Road. 

On the subject of the room itself, Wickenden says the following:

‘… in 1913 the additions were made to the Allcroft Road buildings, namely a special geography room and two new classrooms. … The geography room was the first of its kind in the country, and owed its conception and design to the enthusiasm of Mr. James Fairgrieve, then geography master at the School and a pioneer in modern methods of teaching that subject. He had put forward his proposals first in 1911, and one must applaud the business-like dispatch which saw the three rooms ready for use at the beginning of the 1913-14 school year, the London County Council having provided a building grant of £2,500 towards the cost.’

I am hopeful that there may be another image of Leonard forthcoming as Chris sent details of my request round in a newsletter. The group photo above is currently the only one I have.

Image credit: Balchin's Centenary volume of the GA - the first Hundred Years

Update July 2021

In July I was able to go up to Solly Street and head into the archives, and found that there was a pallet of boxes from the William Ellis School, where Leonard taught.

These were later catalogued.

What I did find was a copy of the World by Leonard Brooks which appeared to have been used by Leonard himself, which was exciting and a connection back to a previous President.

Major update March 2026

I'm extremely grateful to members of Leonard's family for getting in touch with some further information on Leonard having seen this entry, and having completed some work as a family researching their history. 

This included a huge amount of extra detail on both Leonard and his wife which I hadn't discovered from any other source.

One of the things they sent me was a family tree - here's a section of it that features Leonard.

One part of the detail I was given features Beatrice Kennerley. She was born in 1883 near Bolton. At the age of 18 she was a paper bag maker. Her brothers had emigrated to America. She decided to become a school teacher. She gained her Teacher's Certificate from the Board of Education in 1905, and after two years of probation was granted another certificate in 1907 and started work as an elementary school teacher in Farnworth.

She met Leonard Brooks around this time, who was also working as a school teacher and they were married in 1911.

Leonard and Beatrice Brooks - thanks to Leonard's family.

Leonard and Beatrice moved to London after their marriage and lived in the Hampstead Garden suburb in Wildwood Road.

Beatrice moved into property, and helped set up an estate agents called McCraith and Brooks.

Beatrice and Leonard had 3 daughters.

Now onto the detail of Leonard's life:

Leonard was born in December 1884 in Farnworth near Bolton, Lancashire. The family was recorded as living in Market Street in the 1881 Census.

At the age of 16 he was recorded as working as a clerk in a cotton mill, so probably left school at the minimum age. His father was the manager of the Cotton Mill where he worked.

He attended Halshaw Moor Chapel, and in 1905 was recorded as being both a librarian and a pianist. Leonard was an accomplished musician as well as a geographer. This was very helpful.

Despite leaving school so young, he wanted to study geography at Cambridge. He discovered that FitzWilliam Hall was offering an organ scholarship. He studied the organ and music for a year, took the exams and was awarded the scholarship.

He matriculated in 1908 and gained a BA in Geography in 1910.

His first teaching appointment was in 1911, when he was appointed as an assistant master at the boys' municipal secondary school in Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. This was a busy year, as he married Beatrice and his pay was increased from £160 to £170 per annum.

In 1912 he moved to the William Ellis Endowed School at Gospel Oak in North London.

I've mentioned this earlier in the blog as I was able to get some help from the school and discovered that Leonard's predecessor as teacher had been another GA President James Fairgrieve.

He taught geography at the school, where he "pioneered the use of geography as an instrument of humanity".

He was the author of many textbooks - some of which are mentioned earlier on the blog. 

Leonard's family provided lots of useful additional detail of his later career:

In 1919 he had a part time job at Birkbeck College, lecturing on historical geography.

In 1920 he became an Inspector of Schools for London County Council.

He was Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Geographical Society.

Leonard sadly died in 1964, with Beatrice passing away in 1966.

Special thanks to Annie and Andrew Britton and family members for the information in this update.

UCL IoE and the GA

Updated January 2021

There has been a long association with UCL IoE and GA Presidents over the years, and also the Chief Executive Professor David Lambert of course.
Some Presidents were involved in teacher training at the Institute of Education, others were academics. Others gave lots of service to the GA but were not Presidents, such as Bertie Roberson, who served on the Secondary Section and other committees for many years while working at IoE

In 2004, there was a Centenary celebration and reunion and several former GA Presidents were there, notably Bill Mead, who is the next President to be featured on the blog.

A Geography Education MA has been offered for over 50 years.

Also worth exploring the following GA Presidents who have a connection:
Norman Graves
Molly Long

Ashley Kent and others... 

When I started to volunteer and serve on the GA's Secondary Phase Committee in 2004 (which seems like a lifetime ago now) we used to meet on Saturdays in the geography lab at UCL with the wave tank and other equipment, on the Bedford Way site. I also led quite a few CPD sessions, and attended others, in the hotel opposite the IoE.

I also made a few visits to the office shared by David Lambert and John Morgan, and later Alex Standish, over the years, including when I worked on the GeoCapabilities project. I attended several seminars there over the years as well, including a memorable one with Michael Young and Margaret Roberts, and also David Lambert's Professorial lecture "Lost in the Post" for which I produced the visuals for David's presentation.

James Fairgrieve was perhaps the most famous IoE colleague of them all, and featured in the Presidential Address of the 1996 President Ashley Kent, where he outlined his life and also the strong connections between the IoE and the GA. It is well worth reading to get an idea for the links and the changing nature of Geography. Ashley's Presidential Address was given at the Institute of Education. Fairgrieve worked from 1912-1935 at the IoE (previously known as the London Day Training College) and became GA President when he retired.

Reference

KENT, ASHLEY. “Challenging Geography: A Personal View.” Geography, vol. 82, no. 4, 1997, pp. 293–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572948. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

He provides additional detail on Fairgrieve's life.

Source:
https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/news-events/news/alumni-news/former-students-newsletters/FSN%2015.pdf  (PDF download)

All memories of UCL and the GA welcome as we move into the final year of the blog project and enter the 1980s...

BBC: educational broadcasts

Geography teachers have always been enthusiastic viewers of videos. The connections that the GA has with the production of these goes back to the beginning.

The BBC first started to explore educational broadcasts in 1924, shortly after it was founded. Sir Francis Younghusband (who I have mentioned elsewhere on the blog) contributed to a film called "Climbing Everest". Talks between the GA and the BBC included Fleure, Dudley Stamp, James Fairgrieve and G. R. Taylor. 'Travel Talks' were developed, and the early radio shows were hampered by a lack of visuals, which were needed for context.



References

“How B.B.C. Lectures and Films Are Utilised.” Geography, vol. 15, no. 8, 1930, pp. 672–672. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40559754.

Fairgrieve, J. “USE OF BROADCASTING IN TEACHING GEOGRAPHY IN SCHOOLS.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 34–44. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40557798.

From the archive - letter to Fairgrieve

Occasional images taken in the GA archive.

This an image regarding a Geography Society set up at St. Marylebone Grammar School from 1946.

Read more about Fairgrieve here.

1996: W(illiam) Ashley Kent

Updated August 2023

Ashley Kent had a long career as an academic geographer.
As with quite a few other former GA Presidents, Ashley Kent worked at the Institute of Education for many years.

I own a copy of the book whose cover is shown below, which has proved useful in the past, and has several chapters written by a number of other former Presidents as well. Like many of his books, it has run to several editions.

His PhD thesis was on the adoption of CAL (computer assisted learning) and acts as a useful summary of the development of IT in Geography classrooms - this connects with the work of another President: Peter Fox, (and I will discuss his role at the appropriate time). See the link at the end of the post to download a copy if you are interested.

He also wrote an influential book with Michael Bradford (another former President, who sadly died in 2019) called just 'Bradford and Kent' by the many teachers who used it. I mentioned that book in a recent blog post.

He was also part of the authoring team of the Oxford Geography Project, which I used back in the day when I first started teaching. Copies of this can still be obtained second hand.

Ashley proved elusive to track down for some further information for some time, from the start of my blog writing. 

I was able to swap e-mails with Ashley earlier this year, and he provided me with further information, which is now included below:

I was born in 1945. 

I attended St. Catharine's college, Cambridge - as did at least three other GA Presidents including Derek Spooner. 

My teaching career began as a student teacher at St Dunstan’s College, Catford where Brian Fitzgerald was head of department and Neville Grenyer a member of staff…both became HMI’s!

I then taught at Haberdashers’ Aske’s School, Elstree where my colleagues included John Rolfe, Neville Grenyer, Rosie Grenyer and Clive Rowe.

I was then head of department at John Mason School, Abingdon with Eleanor Rawling as a close colleague. What a powerful department that must have been!

Eleanor and I then moved to the Geography 16-19 Project at the Institute of Education with Michael Naish.
I then became a lecturer and eventually a professor and pro-Director at the Institute of Education.

My major textbooks were the Oxford Geography Project written by the Haberdashers’ team for years 7-9; and two textbooks written with Michael Bradford: Human Geography: Theories and their applications (1977) - and Understanding Human Geography: People and their changing environments (1993). 

Both were aimed at A level and first year university students. 

All published by Oxford University Press…and fortunately sold quite a few copies!?

I joined the GA in 1969 so have been a member for over 50 years!

Further details from his CV:

He has taught in a variety of secondary schools; the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the UK’s

Open University and was Associate Director of the Geography 16-19 Project a nationally funded

curriculum development project.

He has longstanding professional and research interests in: curriculum development and evaluation;

innovation and change (the focus of his PhD work); teaching strategies including fieldwork; the

marketing and image of geography; the school/HE interface; information technology, including

remote sensing; developments in human geography; 16-19 geography; initial teacher education;

stereotyping and bias; and environmental hazards.

He has directed a number of research and development projects including: Project HIT (Humanities

and Information Technology); Remote Sensing in the Geography National Curriculum Project; Centre

for ‘A’ level Curriculum Support; Eurogame Project, a large scale European funded multi media

development; Geography 16-19; Learning Geography with Computers; YoungNet; DUNES; and

pillar leader of the HERODOT Project.

On his involvement with the GA, Ashley sent me this resumé:

He has been fully involved with the Geographical Association (GA) since 1969. He was on GA

Council for 15 years and has been its President. He was a member of COBRIG (Council for British

Geography) and has been its chairman. Over the years, he has been engaged in a number of

geography education research projects, both in the UK and for the International Geographical

Education (IGU), Geography Education Commission. He has presented papers at IGU conferences

across the world and was both a full member of the IGU Geography Education Commission and a

former chair of the British Sub-Committee. He has published widely in geography education and

education both for professional and academic audiences. This has included a number of successful

school and university textbooks.

The common thread in his career has been an involvement and passion for education at a variety of

levels and specifically curriculum development and teacher education.

I tracked down his PhD Thesis from 1996, which was titled:

"Process and Pattern of a Curriculum Innovation".

The innovation in question was introduced at the start:

The innovation in question is the use made by secondary school geography departments of computer assisted learning.

Ashley mentioned 2 key documents that sum up his approach to Geography

‘Geography’ October 1997 ‘Challenging Geography’----my Presidential Lecture presented at the Institute of Education

KENT, ASHLEY. “Challenging Geography: A Personal View.” Geography, vol. 82, no. 4, 1997, pp. 293–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572948. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021. 

James Fairgrieve featured in the Presidential Address, where Ashley outlined his life and also the strong connections between the IoE and the GA. It is well worth reading to get an idea for the links and the changing nature of Geography. 

Ashley provides additional detail on Fairgrieve's life.

His inaugural professorial lecture in 2004 entitled ‘Windows on Geographical Education’….published by the University of London Institute of Education…2004

He was the tutor on the IoE's MA in Geography Education for many years. This went online from 2001, having been offered at UCL since the 1960s

He contributed to an IoE publication on retired academics in 2009, and was described as follows:

Ashley Kent retired as Professor of Geography Education at the Institute of Education, University of London - the culmination of a lifetime as a geography teacher.

“Exciting demanding, relevant and worthwhile – geography prepares pupils to critically understand and fully participate in the changing worlds in which they live” — Ashley Kent

In 2003, Chris Kington asked a number of former Presidents what had sparked their passion for geography. He lent me the letters and Ashley replied to Chris.

He talked about a "gradual realisation" that geography was for him. His geography teacher at school was described as "rigorous - a bit terrifying and gave us lots of autonomy...". He also remembers taking part in the 2nd Land Use survey, at Pilling Marshes and realising that it was all 'rough grazing'. He remembered his PGCE year and the influence of Walford and Fitgzerald et al. He also remembered his first year teaching at Haberdasher's Aske.

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

Ashley told me about his connections with Hull University and Derek Spooner, with whom he led celebrations of the life of Michael Bradford (far more on Mike to come as we get closer to the present day)

He also had memories of my own PGCE tutor at Hull: Vincent Tidswell. He told me:

Vincent I knew through his work and the ‘new’ geography ....his Pattern and Process in Human Geography was followed by Keith Hilton’s Process and Pattern in Physical Geography. 

Keith was a colleague of mine at the Institute of Education....and knew Vincent through working at Hereford College of Education. 

Vincent also had links with Brian Fitzgerald who I met at St Dunstans College. 

That was for me as a keen young man/geographer....a really exciting time...we felt very much at the frontier of the ‘new’ geography, both new in terms of content and pedagogy. 

Oxford Geography Project was really at the leading edge....as were the Schools Council Projects....GYSL and 14-18 ...and the one I was very much part of...the 16-19 Project. 

People like Brian, Rex et al were at the forefront....it was great fun being part of it! 

The first book Mike and I wrote was a direct effort to help teachers to keep up to date with the ‘new’ geography then in several school and university syllabuses. 

Of course Mike and I were helped by being a part of Cambridge and US developments....we went to Madison Wisconsin after Cambridge...where a great deal of that stuff was going on.

Exciting times, and Vincent was very much part of that. I like to think he passed on a little of that love for exciting new approaches and pedagogies to his trainees, of which I am proud to have been one. I remember using GYSL in my first job in January 1988 at John Flamsteed School in Denby, Derbyshire.

Ashley also shared some memories of the next important phase in the GA's History: the move from Fulwood Road to Solly Street, where it has its HQ to this day. Ashley is amongst the Presidents and former staff who were involved in locating the GA's new premises. That story will be told next.

Image from GA News.

Update January 2021

Some memories of his Presidential conference from Ashley Kent.

In my Presidential Year we had the Conference at the Institute on Bedford Way, which I thought was appropriate given the long-standing links between the IOE and the GA. The Presidential Dinner was held at the Imperial Hotel on Russell Square. My guest of honour was the Crown Princess of Thailand: a much revered member of their royal family: very environmentally aware and active. He had been suggested by Professor Philip Scott: an extraordinary and alternative academic from SOAS. 

The assembled diners were kept waiting by the Princess, who had been having tea with Prince Charles at Highgrove and then visiting SOAS.
We were kept waiting by the guest of honour for quite a while...so much so I suggested more booze was supplied to all the waiting guests.

On her eventual entrance/arrival the assembled throng, on the advice we were given, all stood up and did the slow handclap, which apparently in Thailand is a mark of real respect.

She was accompanied by two armed generals and sat next to me at the top table and the generals became anxious ( I was told by folk sitting with them at one of the tables) when I engaged in a lively/animated story involving props, including a scroll given to her in memory of her visit.

It was all right on the night! 

Is there anyone who was there and has their own memories of this event?

References

List of papers on ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2021831879-Ashley-Kent

http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n86036437/

PhD Thesis: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/33677738.pdf

Professorial lecture: https://www.ucl-ioe-press.com/books/citizenship/windows-on-geographical-education/

KENT, ASHLEY. “Innovation, Change and Leadership in Geography Departments.” Geography, vol. 91, no. 2, 2006, pp. 117–125. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41555403. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

Presidential Lecture, exploring the life of James Fairgrieve

KENT, ASHLEY. “Challenging Geography: A Personal View.” Geography, vol. 82, no. 4, 1997, pp. 293–303. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572948. Accessed 15 Jan. 2021.

I would be pleased to receive any further details of Ashley Kent's time as GA President.

Updated August 2023

A link with the forthcoming GA President (as I write this) for 2023-24: Denise Freeman.

20 yrs ago today, I started out on a journey...I was looking fw to it, but didn’t realise how amazing it would turn out to be. Today, in 1999, I started my PGCE at @IOE_London with David Balderstone, @DavidMLambert1, Ashley Kent and Shelia King. Thank-you for what you started!

— Denise Freeman 🌎🙋🏻‍♀️ (@geography_DAF) September 20, 2019

Professor Reginald Crawshaw Honeybone

A name to conjure with and someone who worked at the Institute of Education and later in Tanzania and also presented at the GA Conference in the past.

An obituary written by Norman Graves was published in Geography

He was trained by James Fairgrieve and also served on GA committees including the Standing Committee for Visual Aids in the teaching of Geography. He worked with Brian Roberson and I Molly Long, who were of course heavily featured on the blog back in the day, with Molly being a former President of the Association.

Source

Graves, Norman. “Professor Reginald Crawshaw Honeybone CBE, 1913-2002.” Geography, vol. 87, no. 4, 2002, pp. 367–367. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40573771. Accessed 25 Jul. 2022.

Reginald wrote a number of books, some with Roberson and also with George Joseph Cons - a President who 'never was' sadly.

Down in the stacks

After over two years, I was able to head to Solly Street earlier in the week to do some of the research that I would otherwise have been doing throughout the creation of this blog.

In the 'basement' (although there are other lower floors) sit the rolling stacks which contain quite a bit of archive material which has so far been catalogued and placed into archival boxes and filing systems and given reference numbers. 

These include lots of papers and documents, including the W G V Balchin papers, which were used to help create the centenary volume published in 1993. 

I was able to find a number of books and other documents which will be added in to some of the existing posts, and also go towards new posts. Some very exciting finds. Here's a catalogue of Norwegian slides, probably taken from images taken by James Fairgrieve.

1945 GA Conference

I am grateful to Alastair Owens, who will be GA President for 2022-3 as many readers will know, for finding and sharing images of this programme from the 1945 GA Conference which he came across earlier.

As shown here, the 1944 conference had had to be cancelled due to falling bombs...

The 1945 Conference was the first for a while. Thomas Cotterill Warrington was the President: he served from 1942-5 so was the last President to serve more than a year. The Conference was held at the City Literary Institute in Holborn, London.

The conference was held in early January, as they used to be before the move to April.

There are some sessions which sound really fascinating, and I would love to have been there... Tea in the refectory sounds fun too.

There are some familiar names there as well, many of whom have featured on the blog already.

The Conference was opened with a lecture on 'Post-War Europe' by Sir Walter Layton.
He was an economist, and lectured at Trinity College.

The lecture is available here, as it was published in a future issue of 'Geography' later that year:

Layton, Walter. “THE FUTURE OF EUROPE.” Geography, vol. 30, no. 2, 1945, pp. 44–50. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563426. Accessed 15 May 2021.

This was followed by a lecture on fruit growing from Raymond 'Bush'.

At 2pm a Symposium featured a range of other future GA Presidents: Leonard Sydney Suggate and Leonard Brooks (who would both become President in the 1950s) which was chaired by the legendary James Fairgrieve. 

The first day ended with a session on the Geography of Poland, actively involved in the conflict that had just ended.

Text from Wikipedia:

Equally the 2nd day started with a session which probably referred back to recent military service, with Brigadier Ralph A Bagnold on the sand dune of N E Africa. He had already made a crossing of the Libyan Desert in the 1930s. During the Second World War, he was a soldier in the British Army, in which he founded the behind-the-lines reconnaissance, espionage and raiding unit that was named the "Long Range Desert Group", serving as its first commanding officer in the North Africa Campaign.

After the war Bagnold continued make significant contributions to the understanding of desert terrain such as sand dunes, ripples and sheets. He developed the dimensionless "Bagnold number" and "Bagnold formula" for characterising sand flow, and also proposed a model for "singing sands". In 1971 he received the Wollaston Medal, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London, and in 1981 the David Linton Award of the British Geomorphological Research Group (named after another former GA President). He lived to the age of 94.

The session on the Future of Primary Geography featured Olive Garnett (see her entry) and also Mrs. Katz (who got a mention in my Charney Primary Geography conference presentation as she chaired the Primary committee when it launched. It was chaired by G J Cons, who had been due to be the President in 1961 but sadly died in 1960.

Here is part of the contribution of Olive Garnett.

“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. Accessed 15 May 2021.

The session on the Future of Secondary Geography had some interesting participants.

“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. Accessed 15 May 2021.

I looked back at 'Geography' to try to find some outcomes from this conference in the journal and found the report of the conference and links to some of the lectures:

Thomas Cotterill Warrington was also asked to be President for another year at the end of the conference in the business meeting.

References

Wikipedia entry on Sir Walter Layton:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Layton,_1st_Baron_Layton

Image Wikimedia

Raymond Bush article:

Bush, Raymond. “FROST AND THE FRUITGROWER.” Geography, vol. 30, no. 3, 1945, pp. 80–86. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40563438. Accessed 14 May 2021.

Brigadier Ralph Bagnold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bagnold

Image Wikimedia

“GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION. ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1944.” Geography, vol. 30, no. 1, 1945, pp. 18–19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40562425. Accessed 15 May 2021.


Thanks to Alastair Owens for the images. Hopefully more documents like this will come to life when I can next get to Solly Street and get into the archive.

1930s: Land Utilisation Survey

The GA established a Regional Survey Committee in the 1920s and running into the 30s when it worked on finalising the Land Utilisation Survey.
This was instigated by Laurence Dudley Stamp, who was to become GA President later.

He had previously completed other land use work, and was interested in the publication of a map of Northamptonshire, published by the OS after the work of a geography teacher called Mr. E. E. Field.

Dudley Stamp according to 'Billy' Balchin, "was quick to realise the potential value of a national Land Utilisation Survey for GB as a whole and immediately proposed through the GA committee the establishment of a central organisation at the LSE"

This had representatives from the GA, OS, Ministry of Agriculture and Education Authorities. The GA couldn't afford to fund the survey, and in 1930, it became a separate Association under the Directorship of L Dudley Stamp.

During the 1930s, the survey continued, with the rural areas being easier to complete. The Six Inch survey was completed first, followed by the One Inch survey, funded by county sponsorships and help from individual LEAs (remember those?)

The survey was carried out by teachers, pupils, Scouts and Guides, students, WI members and even nuns. Those involved were convinced that if the land could be used better, Britain would be better - some great pre-War optimism.
Once the surveys were undertaken, the maps were returned to the office. They were transcribed by hand, and Dudley Stamp went out to many parts of the country to check them for accuracy. The Survey was funded by the royalties from Stamp's books. As the maps from the survey were published, Stamp wrote memoirs for each county that had been covered.

Stamp estimated, according to Rex Walford, that a quarter of a million schoolchildren were involved in the Land Utilisation Survey. It was later repeated under the helm of Alice Coleman (more on that to come in a later blog post), and finally in 1996 (more on that to come later too). James Fairgrieve (another former President was also involved according to Fleure's reports on the Survey in 1953
The layer was made available online, so it can be accessed.
It can be seen in the Visions of Britain website.

Here is the layer for Ely, for example.


Some sections of the country have a more 'hand-drawn' look to them.

A later survey was featured in a piece by Rex Walford which I have blogged about and will appear here in time.

Reference
Rex Walford (2001) - Land Utilisation Survey is featured in detail on pp. 108-112

Stamp, L. Dudley. “THE LAND UTILISATION SURVEY OF BRITAIN.” Geography, vol. 16, no. 1, 1931, pp. 44–51. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40557799.

Fleure, H. F:  (1953) https://www.jstor.org/stable/40564702 "Sixty years of geography and education"

1950s - Committees were busy, and plenty of other changes

Balchin's Centenary volume describes some of the work of the GAs Phase Committees during the 1950s, a time when financial pressures forced the GA to raise the annual subscription to a guinea from 1955.

• Secondary Schools Committee published a new handbook in 1952, then turned to producing school atlases. It's chairman for 25 years, Mr. C B Thurston, stepped down apparently 'reluctantly' in 1953.
• The Primary Schools Committee revised 'Geography in the Primary School' in 1953.
• The Public and Preparatory Schools Committee opened its membership to women teachers in 1951.
• The Training College Section organised a series of one day conferences to meet the criticism that 'much of the geography teaching in secondary modern schools was being undertaken by individuals without any geography training' (Balchin, p.43)
• Visual Aids Section produced 'The Geography Room in the Secondary School' in 1954, and started to investigate the use of OS Map extracts with aerial photographs which were to become a feature of Geography exams for decades to come.
• Two new committees were formed: Further Education (1953) and Field Studies (1954)
• The Executive Committee was continuing discussions with the BBC about geography school programming. At this time, there was a feeling that changes were happening too quickly for textbooks to keep up and that radio and TV could help.

One particular way that the GA tried to keep teachers up to date with the pace of change in the modern world was a feature called 'This Changing World' which was introduced into the 'Geography' journal in 1954, edited by Leonard Sydney Suggate followed by G. J Butland when Suggate retired to New Zealand, as described in his blog post.

The 1950s also saw the passing of several former GA Presidents who have previously appeared on the blog:

• Dr. Hugh Robert Mill in 1950 (who was closely associated with the GA from its founding)
• James Fairgrieve in 1953 (over 40 years of service to the GA)
• Dr O J R Howarth in 1954 (over 40 years of service to the GA)
• Sir John Linton Myres in 1954

These led to the appointment of other GA Presidents to come to key roles: L Dudley Stamp, E G Bowen and W.G.V Balchin.

Finally, Balchin reminds us that the 1950s were a time when the country was recovering from WWII - rationing had ceased and rebuilding of bombed cities was underway. Membership climbed steadily and the GA was settled in its new home city of Sheffield.

The Annual Conferences were still being organised by the very efficient R. C Honeybone and Dr. J H Bird and attendance was close to 1000.
Professor Emeritus E G R Taylor reached the age of 80 in 1959, and funds were raised for an annual lecture in her name.


Image: early Handbook, on display in Solly St - image by Alan Parkinson