15 Facts About Dudley Stamp

Dudley Stamp worked on many official enquiries into the use of land and planning.

Dudley Stamp attended University School, Rochester, where he joined the Rochester and District Natural History Society.

Dudley Stamp then studied for a BSc at King's College London, graduating with first-class honours in 1917.

Dudley Stamp served in the British Army during World War I in France and Belgium from 1917 to 1919.

Dudley Stamp spent the early 1920s as a petroleum geologist in the then British Empire colony of Burma, marrying and becoming professor of geology and geography in the new University of Rangoon in 1923.

Dudley Stamp reported on the reaction of a farmer who came across a school class doing land-use survey on his land.

Dudley Stamp went on to act as a consultant to many national governments and prepared a general scheme for a world land use survey which was adopted by the International Geographical Union.

Dudley Stamp became professor of Economic geography in 1945 and moved to the chair of Social geography in 1948.

Whilst at LSE Dudley Stamp held senior posts at many organisations, including presidency of section E of the British Association, the Geographical Association, the International Geographical Union and the Institute of British Geographers, and vice-presidency of the Royal Society of Arts.

Besides DIY work at home in Bude, Cornwall, Dudley Stamp acted as a director of the family grocery firm Cave Austin and Company Ltd and was president of the Institute of Grocers.

Dudley Stamp was a member of the Nature Conservancy from 1958, chairman of the British National Committee for Geography and president of the Royal Geographical Society.

Dudley Stamp died of heart failure in 1966 at a conference in Mexico City; he is reputed to have just completed a quest to visit every country in the world.

The Dudley Stamp Papers, held at the department of geography, University of Sussex, contain much information on his organisation of the Land Use Survey, together with personal and professional papers which illustrate his life and career.

Dudley Stamp was appointed CBE in 1946 and knighted in 1965.

Dudley Stamp received the Daniel Pidgeon award of the Geological Society and the gold medal of the Mining and Geological Institute of India.