{{Short description|British academic and cartographer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023 }} {{Use British English|date=February 2023}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL | dateformat = dmy }}
'''Christopher Board''' OBE is a British cartographer and academic. Among his special interests are the histories of cartography and of military mapping in colonial South Africa.
== Career ==
Board was appointed a lecturer in geography at the London School of Economics from 1 October 1963,<ref>{{cite news |title=University News |work=The Times |date=9 February 1963 |page=10 |issue=55621}}</ref> eventually retiring as a Senior Lecturer.
He served as chair of the UK Committee for Cartography, and of the British Cartographic Society.<ref name="Gazette-57509">{{London Gazette |issue=57509 |date=31 December 2004 |page=9 |supp=y}}</ref> In 1980 he was a founder of the Charles Close Society, for the study of Ordnance Survey maps, and served as its chair for sixteen years to 2012.<ref name="CCS-NYH">{{cite web |title=New Year Honours |url=https://www.charlesclosesociety.org/honours |publisher=Charles Close Society |access-date=25 February 2023}}</ref><ref name="CCS-TY">{{cite journal |title=Thank you Chris Board... |journal=Sheetlines |date=August 2012 |issue=94 |pages=2–3 |publisher=Charles Close Society |url=https://ccs-web.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/Issue94page2.pdf}}</ref> During his chairmanship, he almost doubled the society's membership.<ref name="CCS-TY" />
He was co-organiser of the International Cartographic Association (ICA) conference in 1991.<ref name="Ortag" >{{cite web |last1=Ortag |first1=Felix |title=Honorary Fellowship for Christopher Board |url=https://icaci.org/honorary-fellowship-for-christopher-board/ |publisher=International Cartographic Association |access-date=25 February 2023 |date=21 August 1999}}</ref> He edited the ICA Newsletter for several years from the mid-1990s.<ref name="Ortag" /> He chaired the ICA's History of Cartography Commission from 1999 to 2003,<ref name="ICANews38">{{cite journal |title=ICA Commission Chairs |journal=ICA News |date=June 2002 |url=https://icaci.org/files/documents/newsletter/ica_news_38_2002_1.pdf}}</ref> having earlier played a key role in its Commission of Cartographic Communication for seven years, after the death of its sitting chair.<ref name="Ortag" /><ref name="ICANews33">{{cite journal |title=ICA Awards announced at ICC'99 |journal=ICA News |date=December 1999 |url=https://icaci.org/files/documents/newsletter/ica_news_33_1999_2.pdf}}</ref>
His 1993 book with Peter Barber, head of maps at the British Library, ''Tales from the map room : fact and fiction about maps and their makers'' was a tie-in with the BBC television series ''Tales from the Map Room''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Millea |first1=Nick |title=Review of Tales from the Map Room: Fact and Fiction about Maps and Their Makers |journal=The Geographical Journal |date=1995 |volume=161 |issue=1 |pages=98 |doi=10.2307/3059949|jstor=3059949 }}</ref>
[[File:Mid Berkshire 1885 Ordnance Survey One Inch Map - Alan Godfrey Maps edition cover.jpg|thumb|upright|''Mid Berkshire 1885'', one of several Ordnance Survey map reprints by Alan Godfrey Maps for which Board wrote an introduction]]
He has written text introductions for several reprints of old Ordnance Survey maps, published by Alan Godfrey Maps.{{citation needed|date= August 2023}}
== Honours ==
Board was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the International Cartographic Association in 1999,<ref name="Ortag" /><ref name="ICANews33" /> and received the British Cartographic Society Medal in September 2004.<ref name="CCS-NYH" />
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2005 New Year Honours, for services to cartography.<ref name="Gazette-57509" />
== Personal life ==
In 1983, Board was a contestant, partnered with a student, John Edmunds, on an episode of the television game show ''Treasure Hunt'' centred on the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire.<ref name="TH">{{Cite episode |title=Gloucestershire: Forest of Dean |series=Treasure Hunt |series-link=Treasure Hunt (British game show) |station=Channel 4 |date=24 February 1983 |series-no=One |number=9 }}</ref>
== Selected papers ==
* {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=The Rehabilitation Programme in the Bantu Areas and Its Effect On the Agricultural Practices and Rural Life of the Bantu in the Eastern Cape |journal=The South African Journal of Economics |date=March 1964 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=36–52 |doi=10.1111/j.1813-6982.1964.tb03179.x}} * "Maps as Models". In: Chorley R.J., and Haggett P. (eds.), ''Models in Geography''. London: Methuen. 1967. * {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=The secret map of the County of London, 1926, and its sequels |journal=London Topographical Record |date=1995 |volume=27}} * {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=Things the maps won't show us: reflections on the impact of security issues on map design |journal=Proceedings of the 15th International Cartographic Conference, Bournemouth, 1991 |volume=1 |page=145 |date=1995}} * {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=Air photo mosaics: a short-term solution to topographic map revision in Great Britain 1944-51 |journal=Sheetlines |issue=71 |date=December 2004 |pages=24–35 |url=http://www.charlesclosesociety.org/files/Issue71page24.pdf}} * {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=The British War Office 1:250,000 mapping of Cape Colony 1906-1914 |journal =International Symposium on "Old Worlds-New Worlds": The History of Colonial Cartography 1750-1950 Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 21 to 23 August 2006 |url=https://history.icaci.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Board_Christopher_2006.pdf}} * {{cite journal |last1=Board |first1=Christopher |author-mask1=0 |title=Reflections On Three ICA Commissions |journal=ICA News |pages=10–11 |date=September 2009 |url=https://icaci.org/files/documents/newsletter/ica_news_special_2009_hq.pdf}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Board, Christopher}} Category:Living people Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:British cartographers Category:Academics of the London School of Economics Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:20th-century British historians Category:21st-century British historians