Reginald Wagstaffe (28 July 1907 – 1983) was an English naturalist, ornithologist, and museum curator. He was curator of the Yorkshire Museum, and then from 1948 was the Keeper of Vertebrate Zoology at Liverpool City Museum. Wagstaffe founded the Liverpool Ornithologist's Club.

Career

Wagstaffe was born in the UK on the 28th July 1907, and attended the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

to study ornithology. He was appointed Curator of the

Yorkshire Museum The Yorkshire Museum is a museum in York, England. It was opened in 1830, and has five permanent collections, covering biology, geology, archaeology, numismatics and astronomy. History The museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosophical Soci ...

in January 1941, replacing Walter Collinge, having formerly been Curator of the Stockport Municipal Museum. Wagstaffe lived with his wife, Trissie, in Manor Cottage, a building next to the Museum in the grounds of

York Museum Gardens The York Museum Gardens are botanic gardens in the centre of York, England, beside the River Ouse. They cover an area of of the former grounds of St Mary's Abbey, and were created in the 1830s by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society along wit ...

. They were living here during the Baedeker Raid on York on 29 April 1942, during which a bomb narrowly missed the Museum, but caused considerable damage to the roof and windows. Wagstaffe led the efforts to clean up the museum and salvage the Type fossils from the wreckage. Wagstaffe worked with the Honorary Curators of Entomology, Walter Douglas Hincks and A Smith to collect specimens for the museum from Askham Bog. He also worked with Hincks to bring the Ellis collection of insects to the museum in 1945. He left the Yorkshire Museum in 1948 to take up the post of Keeper of Vertebrate Zoology at Liverpool City Museum where he remained for the rest of his working life, founding the Liverpool Ornithologist's Club and serving as a member of the

British Birds Rarities Committee The British Birds Rarities Committee (BBRC), established in 1959, is the national bird rarities committee for Britain. It assesses claimed sightings of bird species that are rarely seen in Britain, based on descriptions, photographs and video re ...

from 1963 to 1970. Some specimens collected by Wagstaffe at in

Te Papa The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is New Zealand's national museum and is located in Wellington. Usually known as Te Papa (Māori language, Māori for 'Waka huia, the treasure box'), it opened in 1998 after the merging of the Nation ...

national museum in New Zealand.

Publications

*Wagstaffe, R. and Fidler, J. H. 1957. ''The preservation of natural history specimens''. London. *Wagstaffe, R. 1978. ''Type specimens of birds in the Merseyside County Museums : formerly City of Liverpool Museums''. Liverpool.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagstaffe, Reginald 1907 births English curators 1983 deaths English ornithologists Yorkshire Museum people University of Cincinnati alumni 20th-century British zoologists Place of birth missing English naturalists