Professional and Academic Career
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. In 1926 he returned to the UK, becoming Reader in Economic geography at the London School of Economics (LSE).
In the 1930s Stamp formed the Land Utilisation Survey of Britain, a major project to survey of the whole country using volunteers including colleagues, students, school teachers and pupils, on a scale of 6 inches to a mile. Publication of maps and reports began in 1933 and was completed in 1948, after interruption by the Second World war. Stamp reported on the reaction of a farmer who came across a school class doing land-use survey on his land. Angry at first, the farmer was pacified by the explanation of the schoolmaster, and then later wrote approvingly to his local newspaper that this approach was valuable both to the pupils and the community. 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.
Stamp became professor of Economic geography in 1945 and moved to the chair of Social geography in 1948. Whilst at LSE Stamp held senior posts at many organisations, including presidency of section E of the British Association (1949), the Geographical Association (1950), the International Geographical Union (1952–6) and the Institute of British Geographers (1956), and vice-presidency of the Royal Society of Arts (1954–6).
He also acted as a government advisor - as vice-chairman of the Scott committee on land utilisation in rural areas (1941–2), as chief adviser on rural land utilisation in the Ministry of Agriculture (1942–55), developed the idea of land classification which was officially adopted for planning purposes and was a member of the Royal Commission on Common Land (1955–8). He retired in 1958.
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