Edmund William Gilbert

For the US actor, see Ed Gilbert.

"E. W. Gilbert" redirects here. For the Presbyterian minister, see Eliphalet Wheeler Gilbert.

Edmund William Gilbert (1900–1973) was a British social geographer. He was Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, from 1953 to 1967.^[1] and Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. He defined geography in terms of the recognition of the characters of regions.^[2]

In the 1920s, while at Reading University, he studied the American West.^[3] He was much influenced by Halford Mackinder, to the point of being thought an uncritical admirer.^[4]

During World War II he worked on the Naval Intelligence Handbooks, producing, with Robert Beckinsale^[5] and S. da Sá, the Spain and Portugal volumes.

He studied at St Peter's School, York.^[6]

Works

• The Exploration of Western America, 1800-1850: An Historical Geography (1933)
• Brighton Old Ocean's Bauble (1953)
• The University Town in England and West Germany (1961)
• British Pioneers in Geography (1972)

References

• Obituary: Edmund William Gilbert, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 140, No. 1 (Feb., 1974), pp. 176–177