Charles Bungay Fawcett (25 August 1883 – 21 September 1952) Transactions and Papers (Institute of British Geographers) No. 18 (1952), pp. xi-xiii
Retrieved 26 August 2015 was a British geographer, regarded as "one of the founders of modern British academic geography" and an early promoter of the idea of

regional planning Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land ...

.John Tomaney, "Anglo-Scottish Relations: A Borderland Perspective", in William L. Miller (ed.), ''Anglo-Scottish Relations, from 1900 to Devolution and Beyond'', Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.232-233
He was born into a farming family in Staindrop,

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, and went to school in nearby Gainford. He studied science at University College, Nottingham and worked briefly as a schoolteacher before joining the staff under A. J. Herbertson at the then-new School of Geography at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He was later a lecturer at University College, Southampton, and

Leeds University The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed ...

. In 1928, he was appointed Professor of Geography at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1949.John Dean
"The barefoot evangelist"
, ''The Northern Echo'', 24 May 2004. Retrieved 14 July 2013

''Provinces of England''

He gained national attention for his essay
Provinces of England
', published in 1919, in which he developed the thinking of

Patrick Geddes Sir Patrick Geddes (2 October 1854 – 17 April 1932) was a Scottish biologist, sociologist, Comtean positivist, geographer, philanthropist and pioneering town planner. He is known for his innovative thinking in the fields of urban plannin ...

in suggesting a process of survey and development planning across large regions of England. He subdivided England into 12 "Provinces" – much larger than the

county council A county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries. Australia In the Australian state of New South Wales, county councils are special purpose ...

s which at that time were the next level of government to the national level – and proposed that much regional planning should be carried out at a "provincial" level, crossing existing local authority boundaries. He claimed that "there is nothing sacrosanct in the boundaries of the administrative sub-divisions of England", while recognising that regional boundaries should "pay regard to local patriotism and to tradition". In many ways, Fawcett's thinking foreshadowed much of the

development planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

system that was applied in England in the second half of the twentieth century, and initiatives towards regional government in England. In 1960 William Gordon East and Sidney William Wooldridge edited a posthumous edition of the essay as a book with updated statistics from the 1951 census.

Other writings

His other books included ''Frontiers, a Study in Political Geography'' (1918) and ''A Political Geography of the British Empire'' (1933).

References

External links

* Hugh Clout
"Fawcett, Charles Bungay (1883–1952)"
''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, September 2011. Accessed 18 November 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fawcett, Charles Bungay Academics of University College London Alumni of the University of Nottingham People from Staindrop 1883 births 1952 deaths English geographers