Published: 03 Oct 2024
The Survey Association is 45 years old today.
As we celebrate our sapphire anniversary, we’re taking a look back down the years to discover how our trade association came by its name.
In 1973, Bill Johnston, who was then the Managing Director of Engineering Surveys in Surrey, contacted a number of leading members of the surveying profession in the United Kingdom to determine if there was sufficient interest and support for the formation of an ‘Association of Land Surveyors.’
The leading lights at that time were Bill himself, Stan Longdin, Ron Craven, Derek Simmons, John Webb and Martyn Iffland.
15 months of meetings later….
Conversations continued, with the more enthusiastic continuing to meet and plan ahead throughout the 1970s. There were some more meetings in 1977, with various committees chewing over all the variables and, most contentiously, what the new association should be called. It is on record that it took fifteen months of meetings and correspondence before the current name of the UK Land & Hydrographic Survey Association was accepted.
Records show that the first set of articles was drawn up using the name of the United Kingdom Survey Association. However, the Registrar of Companies did not accept the name, requiring the inclusion of a word within the title explaining what type of surveyor would be involved. The Registrar was however happy to accept either the ‘United Kingdom Field Survey Association’ or ‘The United Kingdom Geometric Survey Association Limited.’
One, thankfully unsuccessful, pitch was for ‘The UK Topographical Survey Association of Land, Engineering, Photogrammetric, Hydrographic and Cartographic Survey Companies’!
A name was finally agreed and TSA, the abbreviation was adopted from the beginning, was incorporated on 3rd October 1979.
In the 45 years since that day, the association has grown from the original 33 companies to 215 – spanning a variety of disciplines and Full members having a combined turnover of over £280m.
There is no doubt that TSA would not exist without the tenacity and vision of those few founding members, who made their dream a reality. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
Find out more about TSA here.
