Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

Ralph Alger Bagnold, OBE, FRS, (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was an English 20th-century desert explorer,

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

and soldier. In 1932, he staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the Libyan Desert. His work in the field of

Aeolian processes Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erode, transport, and deposit mate ...

was the basis for the book ''

The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes ''The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes'' (1941) is a science book, written by Ralph A. Bagnold. The book laid the foundations of the scientific investigation of the transport of sand by wind. It also discusses the formation and movement of ...

'', establishing the discipline of aeolian geomorphology, combining field work observations, experiments and physical equations. His work has been used by United States' space agency

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

in its study of the terrain of the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...

, the Bagnold Dunes on Mars' surface being named after him by the organisation. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, he was a soldier in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, in which he founded the behind-the-lines

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

and raiding unit the "

Long Range Desert Group The Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) was a reconnaissance and raiding unit of the British Army during the Second World War. Originally called the Long Range Patrol (LRP), the unit was founded in Egypt in June 1940 by Major Ralph Alger Bagnold, acti ...

", serving as its first commanding officer in the North Africa Campaign.

Early life

Bagnold was born in Devonport, England. His father, Colonel Arthur Henry Bagnold (1854–1943) ( Royal Engineers), participated in the rescue expedition of 1884–85 to rescue General Gordon in

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

, Sudan. His sister was the novelist and playwright

Enid Bagnold Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones, (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright known for the 1935 story ''National Velvet''. Early life Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 in Rochester, Kent, daughte ...

, who wrote the 1935 novel ''

National Velvet ''National Velvet'' is a novel by Enid Bagnold (1889–1981), first published in 1935. It was illustrated by Laurian Jones, Bagnold's daughter, who was born in 1921. Plot summary ''National Velvet'' is the story of a 14-year-old girl named ...

''. After Malvern College, he attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In 1915, Ralph Bagnold followed in his father's footsteps and was commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He spent three years in the trenches in France, being mentioned in despatches in 1917 and receiving the Belgian Order of Leopold in 1919. After the war Bagnold studied engineering at

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, obtaining an MA before returning to active duty with the British Army in 1920 with the Royal Corps of Signals. He served in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

and the North West Frontier, India, where he was again mentioned in dispatches. In both of these locations, he spent much of his leave exploring the local deserts. After having read Ahmed Hassanein's "Lost Oasis" he spent one such expedition in 1929 using a Ford Model A automobile and two Ford lorries exploring the vast swathe of desert from Cairo to Ain Dalla which was an area reputed to contain the mythical city of

Zerzura Zerzura ( ar, زرزورة) was a mythical city or oasis located in the Sahara Desert. The rumor Zerzura was long rumored to have existed deep in the desert west of the Nile River in Egypt or Libya. In writings dating back to the 13th century, ...

. After a brief period of

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the En ...

, he left the Army in 1935, but rejoined upon the outbreak of the Second World War.

Desert exploration

Bagnold and his travelling companions were early pioneers in the use of motor vehicles to explore the desert. In 1932 Bagnold explored the Mourdi Depression, in present-day Chad, and found implements dated to the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

period in the valley. Bagnold wrote of his travels in the book '' Libyan Sands: Travel in a Dead World'' (first published 1935; reprinted by Eland in 2010). He is credited with developing a sun compass, which is not affected by the large iron ore deposits found in the desert areas or by metal vehicles as a

magnetic compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

might be. During the 1930s his group also began the practice of reducing tyre

pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country and e ...

when

driving Driving is the controlled operation and movement of a vehicle, including cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Permission to drive on public highways is granted based on a set of conditions being met and drivers are required to f ...

over loose sand. In addition Bagnold is credited with devising a method of driving over the large sand dunes found in the "sand seas" of the Libyan Desert. He wrote, "I increased speed. ... A huge glaring wall of yellow shot up high into the sky. The

lorry A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructio ...

tipped violently backwards—and we rose as in a lift, smoothly without vibration. We floated up on a yellow cloud. All the accustomed car movements had ceased; only the speedometer told us we were still moving fast. It was incredible ..." However, noted Fitzroy Maclean, "too much dash had its penalties. Many of the dunes fell away sharply at the far side and if you arrived at the top at full speed, you were likely to plunge headlong over the precipice. ... and end up with your truck upside down on top of you." A recently discovered

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...

documents Bagnold's explorations and is available via the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

Second World War

Bagnold wrote, "Never in our peacetime travels had we imagined that war could ever reach the enormous empty solitudes of the inner desert, walled off by sheer distance, lack of water, and impassable seas of sand dunes. Little did we dream that any of the special equipment and techniques we had evolved for very long-distance travel, and for navigation, would ever be put to serious use." On 10 June 1940 Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in alliance with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

while Bagnold was in Cairo due to an accident involving a troopship collision that he was on interrupting his journey elsewhere. Upon hearing the news and realizing that

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

was about to become a theatre of war, he requested an interview with General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East. Having secured it, Bagnold suggested that Wavell use his knowledge of the terrain in North Africa to establish a mobile scouting force for desert operations against the Italian Armed Forces in Libya, which Wavell was charged with defeating in the field. During the conversation Wavell asked Bagnold what he would do if he found that the Italians were not doing anything beyond the Libyan coast in the desert interior. Bagnold replied that the new unit that he had in mind might be able to commit "acts of piracy". Wavell granted Bagnold authority to form a unit along these lines, with it being constituted in July 1940 with the name

(L.R.D.G.). After assembling its first formation, Bagnold was the L.R.D.G.'s Commanding Officer until August 1941, when he handed over command to Guy Prendergast on being promoted to the post of Inspector of Desert Troops. Later in the war he was promoted to the post of Deputy Signal Officer-in-Chief Middle East, with the temporary rank of

. On 7 June 1944 Bagnold retired from the British Army with the end of military operations in North Africa after the

Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

' defeat in that theatre. and returned to his scientific interests, being elected to a Fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in the same year.

Later work

After the war Bagnold continued to work in the field of the geological science, and he published academic papers into his nineties. He made significant contributions to the understanding of desert terrain such as sand

dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

ripples Ripple may refer to: Science and technology * Capillary wave, commonly known as ripple, a wave traveling along the phase boundary of a fluid ** Ripple, more generally a disturbance, for example of spacetime in gravitational waves * Ripple (electri ...

and

sheets A bed sheet is a rectangular piece of cloth used either singly or in a pair as bedding, which is larger in length and width than a mattress, and which is placed immediately above a mattress or bed, but below blankets and other bedding (such as ...

. He developed the dimensionless "

Bagnold number The Bagnold number (Ba) is the ratio of grain collision stresses to viscous fluid stresses in a granular flow with interstitial Newtonian fluid, first identified by Ralph Alger Bagnold. The Bagnold number is defined by : \mathrm=\frac, where \ ...

" and " Bagnold formula" for characterising sand flow. He gave a constitutive relation for a suspension of neutrally buoyant particles in a Newtonian fluid. He also proposed a model for " singing sands". and made contributions to the science of Sedimentology. His work received a number of awards. He was the 1969 recipient of the G. K. Warren Prize from the National Academy of Sciences. In 1971 he received the

Wollaston Medal The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), ...

, the highest award granted by the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

, and in 1981 the David Linton Award of the British Geomorphological Research Group. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1974. Other awards included the 1970

Penrose Medal The Penrose Medal was created in 1925 by R.A.F. Penrose, Jr., as the top prize awarded by the Geological Society of America. Originally created as the Geological Society of America Medal it was soon renamed the Penrose Medal by popular assent of t ...

by the

Geological Society of America The Geological Society of America (GSA) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of the geosciences. History The society was founded in Ithaca, New York, in 1888 by Alexander Winchell, John J. Stevenson, Charles H. Hitch ...

; and the Sorby Medal from the International Association of Sedimentologists. He also received honorary D.Sc. degrees from both the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

and the Danish

University of Aarhus Aarhus University ( da, Aarhus Universitet, abbreviated AU) is a public research university with its main campus located in Aarhus, Denmark. It is the second largest and second oldest university in Denmark. The university is part of the Coimbra Gr ...

Death

In his final years, Bagnold lived in Edenbridge in the county of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in England. He died at

Hither Green Hither Green is a district in south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Lewisham. It forms the southern part of Lewisham, 6.6 miles (10.6 km) south-east of Charing Cross, and on the Prime Meridian. Growing extensively with ...

on 28 May 1990 at the age of 94.

Personal life

Bagnold married Dorothy on 8 May 1946 at

Rottingdean Rottingdean is a village in the city of Brighton and Hove, on the south coast of England. It borders the villages of Saltdean, Ovingdean and Woodingdean, and has a historic centre, often the subject of picture postcards. Name The name Rotting ...

in East Sussex, and had a son and a daughter.

Honours and awards

* Founder's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, 1935 * Officer of the Order of the British Empire 8 July 1941 * Mentioned in Despatches 2 January 1917, 1 September 1931, 30 December 1941 * Knight, Order of Leopold with palm (Belgium), 5 April 1919, etc.

References

List of publications

#Bagnold, R.A. 1931. Journeys in the Libyan Desert, 1929 and 1930. The Geographical Journal 78(1):13–39; (6):524–533. #Bagnold, R.A. 1933. A further journey through the Libyan Desert. The Geographical Journal 82(2):103–129; (3):211–213, 226–235. #Bagnold, R.A. 1935. The movement of desert sand. The Geographical Journal 85(4):342–365. #Bagnold, R.A. 1935. Libyan Sands. London: Travel Book Club, 351 pp. #Bagnold, R.A. 1936. The movement of desert sand. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 157(892):594–620. #Bagnold, R.A. 1937. The transport of sand by wind. The Geographical Journal 89(5):409–438. #Bagnold, R.A. 1937. The size-grading of sand by wind. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 163(913):250–264. #Bagnold, R.A. 1938. Grain structure of sand dunes in relation to water content. Nature 142(3591):403–404. #Bagnold, R.A. 1938. The measurement of sand storms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 167(929):282–290. #Bagnold, R.A. 1939. A lost world refound. Scientific American 161(5, November):261–263. #Bagnold, R.A. 1939. Committee on wave pressures: interim report on wave-pressure research. Journal of the

Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, whi ...

12:201–226. #Bagnold, R.A., Myers, O.H., Peel, R.F. and Winkler, H.A. 1939. An expedition to the Gilf Kebir and 'Uweinat, 1938. The Geographical Journal 93(4):281–313. #Bagnold, R.A. 1940. Beach formation by waves: some model experiments in a wave tank. Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers 15(5237):27–53. #Bagnold, R.A. 1941.

. London: Methuen, 265 pp. #Bagnold, R.A. 1945. Early days of the Long Range Desert Group. The Geographical Journal 105(1–2):30–42. #Bagnold, R.A. 1946. Motion of waves in shallow water. Interaction between waves and sand bottoms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 187:1–18. #Bagnold, R.A. 1947. Sand movement by waves: some small-scale experiments with sand of very low density. Journal of the Institute of Civil Engineers 27(5554):447–469. #Bagnold, R.A. 1951. Measurement of very low velocities of water flow. Nature 167:1025–1027. #Bagnold, R.A. 1951. The movement of a cohesionless granular bed by fluid flow over it. British Journal of Applied Physics 2(2):29–34. #Bagnold, R.A. 1951. Some problems of desert physics. Bulletin de l'Institut Fouad premier du désert 1(2):27–34. #Bagnold, R.A. 1951. The sand formations in southern Arabia. The Geographical Journal 117(1):78–86. #Bagnold, R.A. 1953. Navigating ashore. Journal of the Institute of Navigation 6:184–193. #Bagnold, R.A. 1953. Forme des dunes de sable et régime des vents. In: Actions éoliennes, phénomènes d'évaporation et d'hydrologie superficielle dans les régions arides, Centre national de la Recherche scientifique (CNRS), Paris, Colloques internationaux 35, pp. 23–32. #Bagnold, R.A. 1953. The surface movement of blown sand in relation to meteorology. In: Desert Research, Proceedings of the International Symposium, Jerusalem, 7–14 May 1952, Research Council of Israel, Special Publication 2, pp. 89–93. #Bagnold, R.A. 1954. Physical aspects of dry deserts. In: Cloudsley-Thompson, J.L. (ed). Biology of Deserts, Proceedings of a symposium held in London, 1952, Institute of Biology, London, pp. 7–12. #Bagnold, R.A. 1954. Experiments on a gravity-free dispersion of large solid spheres in a Newtonian fluid under shear. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 225(1160):49–63. #Bagnold, R.A. 1955. Some flume experiments on large grains but little denser than the transporting fluid, and their implications. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 4(3):174–205. #Bagnold, R.A. 1956. The flow of cohesionless grains in fluids. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A 249(964):235–297. #Bagnold, R.A. 1960. The re-entrainment of settled dust. International Journal of Air Pollution 2(3):357–363. #Bagnold, R.A. 1960. Some aspects of shape of river meanders. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 282-E, pp. 135–144. #Bagnold, R.A. 1960. Sediment discharge and stream power; a preliminary announcement. US geol. Surv. Circular 421. #Leopold, L.B., Bagnold, R.A., Wollman, M.G. and Brush, L.M. 1960. Flow resistance in sinuous or irregular channels. United States Geological Survey, Professional Paper 282-D, pp. 111–134. #Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Saltation (air and water). In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 6, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 370–371. #Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Transport of sand by wind. In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 7, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 436–440. #Bagnold, R.A. 1962. Auto-suspension of transported sediment; turbidity currents. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 265:315–319. #Bagnold, R.A. 1963. Beach and nearshore processes – Part 1, Mechanics of marine sedimentation. In: Hill, M.N. (ed.), The sea – ideas and observations on progress in the study of the sea. New York and London: Interscience Wiley, vol. 3, pp. 507–528. #Inman, D.L. and Bagnold, R.A. 1963. Beach and nearshore processes – Part 2, Littoral processes. In: Hill, M.N. (ed), The sea – ideas and observations on progress in the study of the sea. New York and London: Interscience Wiley, vol. 3, pp. 529–553. #Bagnold, R.A. 1966. The shearing and dilation of dry sand and the "singing" mechanism. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 295(1442):219–232. #Bagnold, R.A. 1966. An approach to the sediment transport problem from general physics. United States Department of the Interior, US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 422-I, 37 pp. #Smith, W.O., Olsen, H.W., Bagnold, R.A. and Rice, J.C. 1966. Certain flows of air and water in sands during infiltrations. Soil Science 101(6):441–449. #Bagnold, R.A. 1968. Deposition in the process of hydraulic transport. Sedimentology 10(1):45–56. #Bagnold, R.A. 1971. Response to presentation of the 1970 Penrose Medal. Geological Society of America Bulletin 82:xiii-xvii. #Bagnold, R.A. 1971. Singing sands. In: Thewlis, J. (ed), Encyclopaedic dictionary of physics, Volume 4, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp. 408–410. #Bagnold, R.A. 1973. The nature of saltation and of "bed-load" transport in water. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 332(1591):473–504. #Bagnold, R.A. 1974. Fluid forces on a body in shear-flow: Experimental use of 'stationary flow'. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 340(1621):147–171. #Sagan, C. and Bagnold, R.A. 1975. Fluid transport on Earth and aeolian transport on Mars. Icarus 26(2):209–218. #Bagnold, R.A. 1977. Bed load transport by natural rivers. Water Resources Research 13:303–312. #Bagnold, R.A. 1979. Sediment transport by wind and water. Nordic Hydrology 10(5):309–322. #Bagnold, R.A. 1980. An empirical correlation of bedload transport rates in flumes and natural rivers. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 372(1751):453–473. #Bagnold, R.A. and Barndorff-Nielsen, O.E. 1980. The pattern of natural size distributions. Sedimentology 27(2):199–207. #Bagnold, R.A. 1983. The nature and correlation of random distributions. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 388(1795):273–291. #Bagnold, R.A. 1985. Transport of granular solids by wind and water compared. In: Barndorff-Nielsen, O., Møller, J.-T., Rasmussen, K.R. and Willetts, B.B. (eds), Proceedings of the International Workshop on the Physics of Blown Sand, 28–31 May, University of Aarhus, Department of Theoretical Statistics, Institute of Mathematics, Memoir 8, pp. 1–8. #Bagnold, R.A. 1986. Transport of solids by natural water flow: evidence for a worldwide correlation. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 405(1829):369–374. #Bagnold, R.A. 1988 Concluding remarks. In: Thorne, C.R., MacArthur R.C. and Bradley, J.B. (eds), The Physics of Sediment Transport, A Collection of Hallmark Papers by R. A. Bagnold. New York: American Society of Civil Engineers, Hydraulics Division, Book number 665, pp. 352–353. #Bagnold, R.A. 1990. Sand, Wind, and War; Memoirs of a Desert Explorer. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, , 202 pp.

External links

A short film containing an interview with R.A. BagnoldCatalogue of the papers and correspondence of Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold
held at

Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...

. The National Archives.
Imperial War Museum Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagnold, Ralph A. 1896 births 1990 deaths Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army generals of World War II Fellows of the Royal Society Wollaston Medal winners Order of Leopold (Belgium) Officers of the Order of the British Empire Military personnel from Devonport, Plymouth Process geomorphologists Fluid dynamicists Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge People educated at Malvern College Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Penrose Medal winners Sedimentologists Long Range Desert Group personnel Scientists from Plymouth, Devon British Army brigadiers of World War II