The Royal Geographical Society is a learned society, founded in 1830 with the name Geographical Society of London for the advancement of geographical science, under the patronage of King William IV. It absorbed the 'Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa' (founded by Sir Joseph Banks in 1788), the Raleigh Club and the Palestine Association. It was given a Royal charter by Queen Victoria in 1859.
Founder members of the Society include Sir John Barrow, Sir John Franklin and Francis Beaufort. It has been a key associate and supporter of many famous explorers and expeditions, including those of:
Charles Darwin
David Livingstone
Scott of the Antarctic
Richard Francis Burton
John Hanning Speke
Henry Morton Stanley
Ernest Shackleton
Today the Society is a leading world centre for geographical learning - supporting education, teaching, research and scientific expeditions, as well as promoting public understanding and enjoyment of geography. It is a member of the Science Council. The society has merged with the Institute of British Geographers and is properly known as the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). The main offices of the Society are in Kensington, in London.
Awards and Grants
The society also presents many awards to geographers that have contributed to the advancement of geography.
The most prestigious of these awards are the Gold Medals (Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838). The award is given for "the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery", and are approved by Queen Elizabeth II. The awards originated as an annual gift of fifty guineas from King William IV, first made in 1831, "to constitute a premium for the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery". The Society decided in 1839 to change this monetary award into two gold medals: Founder’s Medal and the Patron’s. The award has been given to notable geographers including David Livingstone (1855), Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen (1878) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1892) to more recent winners including Professor William Morris Davis (1919), Sir Halford John Mackinder (1945), Professor Richard Chorley (1987) and Professor David Harvey (1995). In 2004 Harish Kapadia awarded the Patron's Medal for contributions to geographical discovery and mountaineering in the Himalayas, making him the second Indian to receive the award in its history. In 2005 the Founder's Medal was awarded to Professor Sir Nicholas Shakleton for his research in the field of Quaternary Paleoclimatology and the Patron's Medal was awarded to Professor Jean Malaurie for a lifelong study of the Arctic and its people.
In total the society awards 17 medals and awards including Honorary Membership and Fellowships. Some of the other awards given by the Society include:
The Victoria Medal (1902) for "conspicuous merit in research in Geography"
The Murchsion Award (1882) for the "publication judged to contribute most to geographical science in preceding recent years"
The Cuthbert Peak Award (1883) for "those advancing geographical knowledge of human impact on the environment through the application of contemporary methods, including those of earth observation and mapping"
The Edward Heath Award (1984) for "for geographical research in either Europe or the developing world"
The society also offers 16 grants for various purposes ranging from established researcher grants to expedition and fieldwork teams to photography and media grants. The Ralph Brown and the Gilchrist Fieldwork grants are the largest grants awarded by the society each worth £15,000.
Copyright Notice:
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Royal Geographical Society".
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