Michael Chisholm (geographer)

Chisholm was born in June 1931, and went to St Christopher School in Letchworth. He completed his schooling in 1950, and then undertook military service with the Royal Engineers. In 1951, he went to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, to study geography under Gus Caesar. Chisholm's contemporaries at St Catharine's included the geographers Peter Haggett, Peter Hall, Gerald Manners{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/jun/05/obituary-gerald-manners|title=Gerald Manners|first1=Hugh|last1=Clout|first2=Peter|last2=Wood|date=4 June 2009|work=The Guardian}} and Kenneth Warren. Together with Chisholm they formed a cohort of geographers who came to be known as "Caesar's Praetorian Guard".{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-gus-caesar-1600981.html|title=Obituary: Gus Caesar|work=The Independent}} They later jointly wrote a {{lang|de|Festschrift}} in Caesar's honour, edited by Chisholm.{{cite book|editor-last1=Chisholm|editor-first1=M.|editor-last2=Manners|editor-first2=G.|title=Spatial Policy Problems of the British Economy|publisher= Cambridge University Press|year=1971|doi=10.1017/CBO9780511735783|isbn=978-0-521-08235-8 }} In the summer of 1953, Chisholm surveyed parts of Blakeney Point, Norfolk, to map changes in the coastline following the great North Sea flood of 31 January to 1 February 1953.{{cite journal|url=https://norfolknaturalists.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Transactions-1953-transactionsofno17norf_page_415-486.pdf|year=1953|last1=Steers|first1=J. A.|last2=Grove|first2=A. T.|title=Shoreline changes on the marsh and marshland coast of North Norfolk, 1951–53|journal=Transactions of the Norwich and Norfolk Naturalists' Society|volume=XVII|pages=322–326}} Chisholm graduated in 1954.

After graduation, Chisholm first worked with Colin Clark at the Agricultural Economics Research Institute in the University of Oxford, from 1954 to 1959. In 1960, Chisholm took up an assistant lectureship at Bedford College, London, under Gordon Manley, before moving in 1965 to the University of Bristol. In Bristol, he was promoted to Reader in 1966, and to Professor of Social and Economic Geography in 1972. In 1976, he moved to Cambridge to take up the 1931 Chair in Geography; a post he held until retirement in April 1996. Chisholm was elected a Fellow of St Catharine's College in 1976, and became an emeritus Fellow in 1996.{{Cite web|url=https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/michael-chisholm|title=Professor Michael Chisholm FBA (1931–2024) |publisher= St Catharine's College, Cambridge}} He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/michael-chisholm-FBA/|title=Professor Michael Chisholm FBA|publisher=The British Academy}}

Chisholm's main work was in areas of human and economic geography, and its applications to government. His writings covered topics including land rent and agricultural economics, regional growth, and the interface between economics and geography. A retrospective commentary on his 1962 book Rural Settlement and Land Use described it as "a powerful rallying point{{nbsp}}... for a new kind of rural geography", in particular in its analysis of the importance of relative location in land use studies.{{Cite journal|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/030913259401800104|title=Classics in human geography revisited: Chisholm, M. 1962: Rural settlement and land use. London: Hutchinson|first1=R. J. C.|last1=Munton|first2=Warren|last2=Moran|date=25 March 1994|journal=Progress in Human Geography|volume=18|issue=1|pages=59–62|doi=10.1177/030913259401800104|url-access=subscription}} In 1970, Chisholm was awarded the Gill Memorial Award of the Royal Geographical Society, in recognition of his work on rural settlement, land-use and economic geography.{{Cite journal|jstor=1795289|title=Meetings: Session 1969–70|year=1970|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=136|issue=3|pages=503–509}} In retirement, Chisholm continued to publish papers, mainly on topics related to the history of the Cambridgeshire Fens.{{Cite journal|last=Chisholm|first=M|url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3200577|title=Conservators of the River Cam, 1702-2002|journal=Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society|volume=92|pages=183–200|year=2003|doi=10.5284/1073315}}{{Cite journal|last1=Chisholm|first1=M.|last2=Stickler|first2=P.|url=https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/details.xhtml?recordId=3200922|title=William Hayward's 1604 map of the Fens|journal=Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society|volume=101|pages=161–172|year=2012|doi=10.5284/1073458}} He died in Cambridge on 9 July 2024, at the age of 93.{{Cite journal|url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2023-24/weekly/6750/section5.shtml|title=Obituaries| journal=Cambridge University Reporter| volume=6750}}

Chisholm served on many national committees throughout his career.{{Cite web|url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmcomloc/547/547vw14.htm|title=House of Commons – Communities and Local Government Committee – Written Evidence|date=September 2010}} He was a member of the social science research council between 1967 and 1972, a member of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England between 1971 and 1978, of the Rural Development Commission from 1981 to 1990, and of the Local Government Commission for England between 1992 and 1995. He was president of the Institute of British Geographers in 1979. Chisholm was also a Conservator of the River Cam for many years, as member from 1979 and chair from 1991. He was also a trustee of the Cambridge Preservation Society and secretary of the Spalding Gentlemen's Society.{{Cite web|url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/BOmSCAjXJjlmUnpf3z97owyP_uI/appointments|title=Michael Donald Inglis Chisholm: Personal Appointments|website=Gov.uk}}

• {{cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Michael |title=Structural Reform of British Local Government: Rhetoric and Reality |year=2000 |isbn=0-7190-5771-X |publisher=Manchester University Press}}
• {{cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Michael |title=Britain on the Edge of Europe |year=1995 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-11920-0 |location=London}}
• {{cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Michael |title=Human Geography: Evolution or Revolution? |publisher=Penguin |year=1975 |isbn=0-14-021883-1 |location=Harmondsworth}}
• {{cite book |last=Chisholm |first=Michael |title=Rural Settlement and Land Use: An Essay in Location |year=1962 |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=0-09-139770-7 |location=London}}

• Chisholm, M. (2003). "Conservators of the River Cam, 1702–2002". Proceedings, Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 92, 183–200.
• Chisholm, M. & Stickler, P. (2012). "William Hayward's 1604 map of the Fens". Proceedings, Cambridge Antiquarian Society 101, 161–172.

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Category:1931 births

Category:2024 deaths

Category:English geographers

Category:Academics of the University of Bristol

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Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London