Laurence Dudley Stamp | |
---|---|
Born |
Catford |
9 March 1898
Died | 8 August 1966 Mexico City |
(aged 68)
Occupation | Geographer |
Awards | Charles P. Daly Medal (1950) |
Sir (Laurence) Dudley Stamp, CBE, DSc, D. Litt, LLD, Ekon D, DSc Nat ( 9 March 1898 – 8 August 1966 ), was professor of geography at Rangoon and London, and one of the internationally best known British geographers of the 20th century.
Educated at King's College London, he specialised in the study of geology and geography and taught at the universities of Rangoon (1923–26) and London (1926–45). From 1936 to 1944 he directed the compilation and publication of the report of the Land Utilisation Survey of Britain. He worked on many official enquiries into the use of land and planning.
Stamp was born in Catford, London in 1898, the seventh child of a shopkeeper; his elder brother Josiah became the banker Lord Stamp of Shortlands. He attended University School, Rochester (1910–13), where he joined the Rochester and District Natural History Society. He then studied for a BSc at King's College London, graduating with first-class honours in 1917. Following military service he returned to King's as a demonstrator. His friendship with a student, his future wife Elsa Rea, led to an interest in geography. They both sat for the BA in 1921, Stamp again taking a first. He was awarded a DSc in the same year.
Stamp served in the British army during World War I in France and Belgium from 1917 to 1919. Whilst away his research paper on the Silurian of Clun Forest was read on his behalf to the Geological Society of London.