In 1921, Mawer became Baines Professor of the English Language at the University of Liverpool, succeeding Henry Cecil Kennedy Wyld. The Scandinavian countries had by this time conducted systematic surveys of their place-names, and English scholars were to do the same for their country. By then it had become obvious that Mawer was the right scholar to take the lead.. "There had long been a feeling in England that it was time for English scholarship to undertake a systematic survey of English place-names on lines similar to those followed in Scandinavia. It was now obvious that Mawer was the scholar to take the lead." Following a speech made to the British Academy in January 1921, the academy sponsored the creation of the English Place-Name Society, of which Mawer was Honorary Director and Secretary, and the driving force. Under the leadership of Mawer, the Society began the gigantic undertaking of producing the Survey of English Place-Names. Drawing upon large support from the English public, the Society gained many members and plenty of funds, and its Survey came to be conducted by several scholars, including Eilert Ekwall, Frank Stenton, Percy Hide Reany, Albert Hugh Smith, John Eric Bruce Gover and Mawer himself. Four of the eight volumes of the Survey produced during Mawer's lifetime were authored by him. The first volume, Introduction to the Survey of English Place-Names (1924), was written with Stenton, while the second volume, Chief Elements used in English Place-Names (1924), Mawer wrote by himself.
