The Mother Goose Award was established in 1979 for 'the most exciting newcomer to British children's book illustration'. Its aim was to encourage children's book illustrators at the beginning of their careers by drawing serious critical attention to their work and to encourage children's book publishers to continue to foster new talent in the field of illustration for children. It was sponsored by Books for Children.
Margaret Read (1889-1991) was an pioneer in applying social anthropology and ethnography to the education and health problems of developing countries. Having studied at Newnham College Cambridge, from 1919 to 1924 she undertook missionary social work in Indian hill villages. From 1924-1930 she lectured on international affairs in Britain and the United States. During the 1930s she studied anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE), did ethnographic field research in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and lectured at LSE. In 1940 Margaret Read was awarded a Chair at the Institute of Education, University of London and became Head of the Department of Education in Tropical Areas, a post which she held until her retirement in 1955. Read was influential in shaping the British Government's attitude to post-war colonial education and was a close personal friend of Sir Christopher Cox at the Colonial Office. After her retirement, she undertook consultancy work, notably for the World Health Organisation and held a number of visiting professorships in Nigeria and the United States.
Nicholas Hans (1888-1969) was born in Russia and studied, and later lectured, in the Faculty of Philology at the University of Odessa during the turbulent decades following 1905. He participated in political life in Odessa during and after the 1917 Revolution, serving as a member of the City Council from 1918. In 1919 Hans left Russia for England and took up studies in the Department of Education, King's College, London. In the 1920s he began to work on the Year Book of Education, continuing this work until the outbreak of World War Two. During the War he worked as a civil servant in the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information. In 1946 he was appointed as lecturer at King's College, becoming a Reader in Comparative Education in 1948. During this time he collaborated with Joseph Lauwerys at the Institute of Education in supervising higher degree students and arranging overseas trips, and he continued these activities after his retirement in 1953. He wrote and published on a wide range of topics, including comparative education, educational policy in Russia, and the history of Russian and eighteenth century education.
Nathan Isaacs (1895-1966) was a metallurgist and was awarded the OBE for the contribution he made to this field during World War Two. However, he also took a scholarly interest in the fields of philosophy, psychology and metaphysics, and was particularly interested in the work of Jean Piaget and in theories of child development and of the teaching of science to children. He lectured and wrote widely on these topics. He married the psychologist and educator Susan Fairhurst in 1922 and was closely involved with her work in the Malting House school experiment. After her death in 1948 he married Evelyn Lawrence, who had also worked at the Malting House School, Cambridge. They were both deeply involved with the National Froebel Foundation, an organisation devoted to promoting the ideas of the educationist, Friedrich Froebel.
Richard Stanley Peters was born in India in 1919. As a child he was sent to live with his grandmother in England where he attended boarding school. From 1933-1938 Peters attended Clifton College, Bristol, and then proceeded to study for an Arts Degree at Queen's College, Oxford University from 1938-1940 (he was awarded a war degree in 1942). In 1940 he joined the Friends Ambulance Service and was drafted to London during the Blitz. From 1944 to 1946 he was Classics Master at Sidcot Grammar School, Somerset.
In 1946 he was granted a Studentship (to study Philosophy and Psychology) at Birkbeck College, where he also worked as a part-time Lecturer. Peters graduated with a BA in 1946 and a PhD in 1949. He was then subsequently a Lecturer (1949-1958) and Reader (1958-1962) in Philosophy at Birkbeck. In 1962 he was appointed Professor of Philosophy of Education, Institute of Education, a post that he held until his retirement in 1982.
Among other roles, Peters was Visiting Professor of Education, Harvard University, 1961; Visiting Professor, Australian National University, 1962; Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of London, 1971-1974; Member of the American National Academy of Education, 1966; Chair, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
Bridget Horatia Plowden (1910-2000) was the daughter of Admiral Sir Herbert W. Richmond, naval historian. She was educated at St. Alfred's School, Hampstead, and at Downe House School, Berkshire. She married Edwin Plowden, later Baron Plowden in 1933. She was active in many fields, including as a Director of Trust Houses Forte Ltd, 1961-1972, a member of the Inner London Education Authority Education Committee, 1967-1973, a Governor and Chairman of the BBC, 1970-1975 and Chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, 1975-1980. She was involved in a wide variety of voluntary organisations, notably in the fields of primary and pre-school education. She was Chair of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England), 1963-1966. As such she also chaired its Committee of Enquiry into Primary Education whose influential report, Children and Their Primary Schools, was published in 1967.
Not much is known about the early life of Russell Scott (c. 1873-1961) but it is clear from this collection of papers that whilst at Balliol Collge, Oxford, he was a member of the hockey team and founded the Oxford branch of the Fabian Society. It was at a talk held by the Society that Scott first met George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). In 1907 he became interested in universal languages and started to learn Esperanto. However between 1908 and 1930 he became somewhat sidetracked by Ido, an offshoot of Esperanto. Scott had a varied career as a language teacher and was the first headmaster of the junior department of Bedales School. In 1912 he emigrated to the United States of America, where he was Professor of French at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee. He returned to England in 1920 and also worked as an examiner for the Oxford and London Examination Boards. During the early part of 1950 he became actively interested in the use of Sprechspur (Speech-Tracing) in Germany for teaching young children to read. It was a phonetic alphabet originally devised by Felix von Kunowski (1868-1943) in 1927. In the same year Scott wrote to Shaw, as he was aware that Shaw had made a provision in his will to provide funds to encourage further research into a universal alphabet. Unfortunately however, Shaw died later that year without naming an alphabet of his choice. Scott spent the next seven years trying to persuade the Public Trustee that the Kunowski alphabet was the only possible choice. In 1955, Scott founded the Phonetic Alphabet Association, as a result of the situation concerning Shaw's will, its aim was to introduce Speech-Tracing into British schools. He was the nephew of C.P Scott of the Manchester Guardian and used this relationship extensively in order to get articles and letters concerning the Sprechspur system published. He also wrote, in Esperanto, an International Language for Scouts which was published in 1952. He was an active promoter of international languages and alphabet reform, contributed funds to the World Federation Movement and was a supporter of World Citizenship, and was also a member of the Simplified Spelling Society. Scott died on the 2nd of January 1961, aged 88.
Susan Isaacs (1885-1948) née Fairhurst, trained as a teacher and gained a degree in philosophy from Manchester University in 1912. Following a period as a research student at the Psychological Laboratory, Cambridge, she was Lecturer at Darlington Training College, 1913-1914, and then lecturer in logic at Manchester University, 1914-1915. Between 1924 and 1927 she was Head of Malting House School, Cambridge, an experimental school which fostered the individual development of children. Isaacs also trained and practised as a psychoanalyst. In 1933 she became the first Head of the Department of Child Development at the Institute of Education, University of London, where she established an advanced course in child development for teachers of young children. Between 1929 and 1940 she was also an 'agony aunt' under the pseudonym of 'Ursula Wise', replying to readers' problems in child care journals. She married twice, firstly to William Brierley and secondly (in 1922) to Nathan Isaacs.
Arthur Sporne (1890-1977) was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk 1890 as the youngest child of William Sporne, grocer, and Hannah Morley, five of whose eight children, including Arthur, went on to become teachers. From 1893 he attended a 'British' [and Foreign Schools Society] elementary school, where his brother was a pupil teacher, and then a 'Church' [of England] school, before moving to King's Lynn Grammar School. He trained as a teacher at Sheffield Training College c1908-1910. From 1911 he worked at the Joseph Lancester Elementary School in Ealing, as well as having short periods of experience at Fulham Reformatory and of war service during World War One. Following military service, Sporne returned to teaching at the Joseph Lancaster School until 1924 at which date the school was transferred to the Grange School, Ealing. The school was evacuated to Stoke Mandeville during the Second World War. After the War he taught at Selbourne School where he specialised in the teaching of mathematics. He retired in 1954 after which he wrote, and coached school phobics.
Harold Silver (b.1928) has written researched and written extensively on educational history and policy. He and his wife, Pamela, have also collaborated on research projects and co-authored articles, reports and books. Between 1980 and 1983 Harold Silver, then Principal of Bulmershe College Reading, and Pamela Silver undertook a research project funded by the Social Science Research Council entitled 'British and American educational strategies against poverty in the 1960s and 1970s'. This work was expanded in subsequent years and the results were eventually published as An Educational War on Poverty: American and British Policy-making, 1960-1980 (Cambridge University Press, 1991). This book analysed the role of education in the American 'war on poverty' from 1964, and in Britain from the appointment of the Plowden Committee on primary schools. It examined attempts in the two countries to use education to break the 'cycle of disadvantage'. During the course of their research, the Silvers not only drew on a large number of written sources, but also conducted taped interviews with a wide range of individuals, such as educationists and policy-makers, in both the United States and Britain.
After a career in teaching, historical research, and lecturing, Sophia Weitzman (1896-1965) was appointed Lecturer in History at the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1939, and was Reader in Education from 1956 until her retirement in 1963. In the 1940s she began work on the educational volume of the official history of World War Two, which was never completed.
Founded in 1921 as the New Education Fellowship by a small group of progressive educationists and liberal thinkers who were heavily involved with the British Theosophical Society and the Theosophical Educational Trust, this organisation grew into a national and then international organisation, with local sections in many countries worldwide, and was re-named the World Education Fellowship in 1966. Although the Fellowship has embraced a wide range of individual philosophies, the central focus has been on child-centred education, social reform through education, democracy, world citizenship, international understanding and the promulgation of world peace. Many famous thinkers and educationists have been involved with the Fellowship and it has forged close links with academic institutions, including the Institute of Education, University of London, and with international organisations, especially UNESCO. An English Section of the Fellowship was founded in 1927 and has included amongst its prominent members, Sir Michael Sadler, Sir Percy Nunn, Sir Fred Clarke, R.H. Tawney and J.A. Lauwerys. The English Section was also instrumental in the establishment of the Home and School Council and the English Association of New Schools.
Explored the Mustagh Pass in the Karakoram Himalayas with E Honigmann, 1903; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1907-1959.
Alexander Douglas Mitchell Carruthers was born in London on 4 October 1882; educated at Haileybury College and Trinity College, Cambridge; worked as secretary to a number of people active at the Royal Geographical Society, and underwent training in land survey work, also becoming an expert taxidermist. He took part in the British Museum expedition to Ruwenzori and the Congo, 1905-1906 and sent home specimens of birds and mammals. He later joined John H Miller and Morgan Philips Price in an expedition through the desert of Outer Mongolia, publishing two volumes on Unknown Mongolia in 1913.
During the First World War he was employed mainly at the War Office compiling maps of the Middle East; his later career consisted largely of map making and working with explorers and travellers. Carruthers was awarded the Gill memorial, 1910 and the patron's gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1912, which he was to serve as honorary secretary in 1916-1921 and Fellow in 1909-1962 and was awarded the Sykes medal of the Royal Central Asian Society in 1956. Carruthers died in the Royal Free Hospital, Islington, on 23 May 1962.
Arnold Danvers Power was a publisher with Hutchinsons and the London manager for Sir Isaac Pitman, he became a partner in W.H. Smith in 1911. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1918-1959.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927-1932; travelled widely in South America.
Leo Austen was Assistant Resident Magistrate of the Western Division of Papua in the 1920s and served elsewhere in Papua during the 1930s. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1929-1938.
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers).
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The RGS has a board of trustees known as the Council, who are responsible for the Society's governance. The Council also has committees that consider matters of strategy and implementation relating to their specific areas of expertise and which advise the Council and Society staff. These committees change over the years. The committees at the time of writing are: Finance, Education, Expeditions and Fieldwork, Information Services, and Research and Higher Education.
Born in Berlin, 1769; educated, Freiberg Academy of Mines under the famous geologist A.G. Werner; hiked around Europe with George Forester, Captain James Cook's scientific illustrator from his second voyage; government mines inspector in Franconia, Prussia, 1792-1800; expedition with botanist Aime Bonpland in South America, 1800-1803; lived in France, 1804-1827; King of Prussia's advisor, 1827-; invited to make geographical explorations of Russia by the tsar: discovered permafrost and recommended that Russia establish weather observatories across the country which were set up in 1835; gave public lectures in Berlin, 1827-1828; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1856-1859, died, 1859.
Publications: Kosmos (1845)
Born, 1935; hydrographic surveyor in the Royal Navy; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1978-1984; after retiring from the Navy he wrote a number of books about the Caribbean.
Brother of Robert Lawrence Reid; worked for the Société internationale Forestière et Minière du Congo; mapped the northern Congo basin with his brothers A E H and Robert Reid, [1910-1911], published in the The Geographical Journal, Vol. 38, No. 6 (Dec, 1911), pp. 591-592; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 1910-1961.
Department of Surveys, Nyasaland; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1961-1987.
Born, 1861; educated, University of Christiania; went to Greenland Sea, 1882; curator in Natural History Museum, Bergen; went across Greenland, 1888-1889; Curator Museum of Comparative Anatomy, Christiania University; North Pole Expedition, in which he reached the highest latitude until then attained (86 deg. 14' m.), 1893-1896; Professor of Zoology, Christiania University; took an active part in the separation of Norway and Sweden, 1905; Minister for Norway at the Court of St James', 1906-1908; Nobel Peace Prize, 1921-1922; Professor of Oceanography, Christiania University, 1908-; Rector of St Andrews University, 1925-1930; died, 1930
Publications:
Across Greenland
Eskimo Life
Farthest North, 1897
The Norwegian North Polar Expedition, 1893-1896, Scientific Results
Norway and the Union with Sweden, 1905
Northern Mists, 1911
Through Siberia, 1914
Sporting Days in Wild Norway, 1925
Hunting and Adventure in the Arctic, 1925
Adventure, and other Papers, 1927
Armenia and the Near East, 1928
Through the Caucasus to the Volga, 1931
Born, 1852; educated, Charterhouse -1869; appointment in the Indian Telegraph Service, on the Perso-Baluch coast of the Persian Gulf, 1869-1876; explored the interior of Baluchistan, 1876; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1876-1903; Inspector General of Egyptian Telegraphs; surveying expedition in the Egyptian desert, 1887; commander of another expedition in the Egyptian desert, 1891; died, 1903.
In 1918 the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) put forward to the Secretary of State for India proposals for a preliminary expedition to Mount Everest. Initialy refused, the Tibetan Government finally gave permission for a British expedtion to proceed into Tibet in 1921. The RGS and the Alpine Club formed the Mount Everest Committee to co-ordinate and finance the 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest, this included raising funds, selecting expedition personnel, buying stores and equipment, carrying out surveys, arranging transport and communication and organising publicity, lectures and filming and photographing of the expedition. The Mount Everest Committee oversaw the 1921, 1922, 1924, 1933, 1935 and 1938 expeditions to Everest.
In 1947 the Mount Everest Committee was renamed the Joint Himalayan Committee, again composed of members of the Alpine Club and the RGS. The Joint Himalayan Committee was responsible for organising and financing expeditions to Everest in 1951 and 1952 and the first ascent in 1953.
The Mount Everest Foundation was founded after the successful ascent of Everest in 1953, again a joint initiative between the RGS and the Alpine Club, it was initially financed from surplus funds and subsequent royalties of the 1953 expedition, the Foundation was established to encourage 'exploration of the mountain regions of the earth'. Since inception the MEF has dispensed almost £840,000 in grants. The majority go to small expeditions organised by adventurous young men and women. However the Foundation has also supported expeditions to the Earth's highest peaks, fine examples of which were first ascents of and new routes on Everest, Kangchenjunga, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Xixabangma, Nuptse, Kongur and the Ogre. In fifty years over 1,500 expeditions have been helped in this way.
In the early 1930s, the Norwegians claimed an area on the East Greenland coast (called Eirik Raudes Land by the Norwegians) as Norwegian territory. The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway in 1933 and they subsequently abandoned their claims.
Expeditions in Persia and Afghanistan, 1828-1829; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1868-1873.
Born 1870, Edward Laidlaw Thomson was a Scot who was employed with the African Lakes Company on a new coffee plantation in [Malawi] c 1893-1897. Died, 1897.
Born, 1875; naval architect in the employment of Harland and Wolff, builders of the Titanic, and gave evidence in the inquiry into its loss, 1912; CBE, 1920; consulting naval architect, Argentine Navigation Company, 1926; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1926-1933; died, 1939.
Born, 1835; educated, Montgreenan House School, Ayrshire; articled pupil to T E Blackwell, civil engineer, and assisted the construction of the Kennet and Avon Canal; assistant engineer constructing a branch of the Grand Trunk Railway, Canada; expeditions to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky, Amazon, Monte Video, Argentine, Chile, Patagonian coast, Peru, Bolivia and West Indian Islands; returned to England, 1870; ran a camp for schoolboys, 1892-1914; died, 1926.
Educated Harrow and RMA Woolwich. Commissioned in Royal Engineers, 1890. Survey of India 1897-1925. Served in the Somaliland Field Force (1903-1904) and in Mesopotamia (1916-1918). Retired 1925 and worked with Sudan Air Survey 1929-1930. Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1919-1929.
Born, 1865; educated at the Oratory School, Edgbaston under Cardinal Newman, 1876-1883 and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, 1883-1884; commissioned in the 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards, 1884; a hunting accident in January left him with a permanent limp which interrupted his career, 1885; home service until 1899; seconded for service with the Chinese regiment of infantry recently formed at Weihaiwei, 1899; touring the provinces of north-east China, 1901; rejoined his battalion in South Africa for the campaigns in the Transvaal and Cape Colony, 1902; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1902-1923; Korea, 1903; temporary military attaché to the British minister at Seoul in Korea, 1904; as military attaché with the Japanese army he witnessed the Manchurian campaign, 1905; military attaché at Peking, 1905-1910; came back to Europe in 1909 and resigned his commission; returned to China and journeyed from Peking through Chihli (Zhili) and Shansi, across the Ordos to Ninghsia, 1910; spent nine months exploring and shooting in the Altai and T'ien Shan, 1911; visited the Kumbun and Labrang monasteries in south-western Kansu before moving south along the upper reaches of the Salween and Mekong rivers and crossing briefly into the Shan states in Burma, he then moved across country to Foochow (Fuzhou) and by steamer to Shanghai, 1912; rejoined the service, 1914; served in France with the 47th London division; commander of the 4th Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1915; commanded the 47th brigade of the 16th division, 1916-1917; commanded the 43rd brigade, 1918; joined General Knox's mission to Admiral Kolchak in Siberia, 1919; returned to China, 1920 to journey to Lhasa; died, 1923.
Born, 1909; educated Chiswick School of Art; Joined the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) Drawing Office staff, 1926; Allied Photo Interpretation Unit, RAF, Second World War; RGS chief draughtsman, 1955-1974; RGS Gill Memorial award, 1959; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1971-1994; retired, 1974; died 1994.
George Wharton Marriott was born in Eton around 1843; he was agent to a rich landowner in Blakeney, Norfolk, on whose expense he travelled around the world. He later became private secretary to Lord Northcote and acted as agent for him in London while Lord Northcote was governer general of Australia. He died in 1921.
Born, 1905; grew up in the Lake District; tea planter near Darjeeling; joined Professor Dyhrenfurth's international expedition to Kangchenjunga as transport officer, 1930; attempted the summit of Jongsong Peak with Smythe; joined the 1933 Everest expedition; returned to England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1944-1955; died, 1956.
Born, 1848; entered the Navy, 1862; served on HMS LONDON engaged in suppressing the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa, 1875-1879; qualified as interpreter in Swahili; British Consul at Mozambique, 1879; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1881-1925; explored interior of Mozambique, 1882-1885; returned to England, 1885; RGS Patron's Medal, 1885; Consul at Leghorn; Consul at Rouen; retired, 1899; died, 1925.
Born, 1799; one of the founders of the American Geographic Society; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1852-1874; died, 1874.
Born, 1854; educated at home, at private schools, and at University College, London; member of the Geological Society, 1873; life member of the British Association, 1876; published several papers on the geology, natural history, and botany of Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, 1874-1892; family brewery at Ashwell, -1882; called to the bar by the Inner Temple, 1885; chairman of the Cambridgeshire County Council, 1904-1919; gradually became interested in the study of cartography and established his reputation as one of the foremost authorities in Europe on cartography and allied subjects; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1924-1929; gold medal of the Brussels Geographical Society, 1929; died, 1929.
Born, 1907; educated Lancing College, Cambridge University; expedition to Edge Island (Edgøya), 1927; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1927-1932; RGS Cuthbert Peek Grant, 1928; expedition to Labrador, 1928-1929; British Arctic air route expedition, 1930-1931; RGS Founder's Medal, 1932; expedition to Greenland, 1932, where he died.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1937 onwards.
Born, 1851; educated New College, Oxford; Indian Civil Service, 1873; Assistant Collector, Midnapore; assistant to Sir William Wilson Hunter, Director-General of Statistics, 1875; Assistant Secretary, 1879; Under-Secretary to the Government of India in the Home Department, Imperial Secretariat, 1879; Govindpur, 1880, Hazaribagh, and Manbhum, 1884; compiled information on the castes and occupations of the people of Bengal, 1885; Acting Financial Secretary to the Government of India, 1898; Census Commissioner, 1899; Director of Ethnography for India, 1901; Home Secretary in Lord Curzon's administration, 1902; Permanent Secretary in the Judicial and Public Department at the India Office, 1910; died, 1911.
Publications: The Tribes and Castes of Bengal (1891-2)
Gazetteer of Sikhim: Introductory Chapter (1894)
The People of India (1908; 2nd edn 1915).
Born 1885; educated Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, 1904; Indian Civil Service; posted to the Punjab, 1908; civilian administrator, Mesopotamian expeditionary force, 1915; personal assistant to Percy Cox; head of a mission to Ibn Sa'ud, ruler of the Nejd in central Arabia, 1917; long leave in England; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1919-1960; RGS Gold Medallist - Founder's Medal, 1920; recalled to Baghdad to help with the administration of the new state of Iraq; British representative in Transjordan, 1921-1924; left public service, 1925; settled in Jiddah, founded a trading company, Sharqieh Ltd, and became a close friend and an unofficial adviser of Ibn Sa'ud; made a series of explorations, of which the greatest was his crossing of the Empty Quarter,1932; converted to Islam and assumed the name Saudis Sheikh Abdullah, 1930; stood as an anti-war candidate in a by-election in Hythe, 1939; arrested in Bombay, taken to England, and imprisoned briefly under wartime regulations, 1940; involved for a time with the Common Wealth party; returned to Arabia; after the death of Ibn Sa'ud in 1953 his outspoken criticisms of the extravagance and corruption under the new king led in 1955 to his exile in the Lebanese village of Ajaltun; died, 1960.
The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Since 1831 the Society has published a Journal, initially containing the principal papers read at the Society's evening meetings and abstracts of Geographical works published elsewhere: it is now a refereed academic publication. The journal has appeared under various titles: Journal of the RGS (JRGS) 1831-1880; Proceedings of the RGS (PRGS) 1857-1878; Proceedings of the RGS (New Series) (PRGS (NS)) 1879-1892; Supplementary Papers (1882-1893); and the Geographical Journal (GJ) 1893 onwards. At first edited by the Secretary of the Society, the preparation and editing of these journals is currently carried out by the Geographical Journal Office.
Born, 1820; educated at private schools in King's Lynn; apprenticed to a painter of heraldic arms on coach panels; began sketching marine subjects; sailed for Cape Town, where he practised his trade, 1842-1845; became a marine and portrait painter, 1845; official war artist to the British forces during the Cape Frontier War, 1851-1852; returned to England and worked for the Royal Geographical Society, 1853; joined Augustus Gregory's expedition to north-west Australia, 1855; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1857-1875; storekeeper and artist to David Livingstone's expedition to open up the Zambezi for trade, 1857; joined James Chapman on an expedition from the south-west coast of Africa to the Victoria Falls, 1861; returned to England to write and lecture before going back to southern Africa to lead an expedition which successfully secured concessions for a gold mining company; testimonial gold watch by the Royal Geographical Society, 1873; continued to travel in southern Africa, surveying, drawing, and painting; died, 1875.
Born, 1826; Addiscombe, 1844; appointed to Bombay Engineers, 1846; military reconnaissance of the Trans-Indus region from Peshawar to Dera Ismail Khan, 1849-1853; assistant in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1853; Mahsud Waziri expedition, 1860; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1859-1896; Superintendent of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, 1861-1883; Surveyor-General of India, 1869-1883; retired, 1883; RGS Council member, 1885; President of the Geographical Section of the British Association at Aberdeen; died, 1896.