Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe (18 April 1901 – 1974) was an explorer, museum curator and folklorist.

Early life

Bagshawe was born in

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the fou ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

, on 18 April 1901, and attended

Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...

before reading geology at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Graham Land Expedition

In 1920, Bagshawe left his studies to take up an opportunity to join the British Graham Land Expedition to

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

, to continue mapping the western coastline of the

Weddell Sea The Weddell Sea is part of the Southern Ocean and contains the Weddell Gyre. Its land boundaries are defined by the bay formed from the coasts of Coats Land and the Antarctic Peninsula. The easternmost point is Cape Norvegia at Princess Martha C ...

. It was a small expedition, made up of only four men and with no ship (their voyage was reliant on Norwegian whaling ships). The expedition arrived in the Antarctic in January 1921, but due to ice blocking their passage through the Antarctic Sound, they did not arrive at their desired location. A scaling back of the expedition's plans resulted, so much so that the expedition's leader, John Lachlan Cope, and the second-in-command, Hubert Wilkins, left in February 1921 (planning to return in 1922 and restart the expedition). However, Bagshawe and the other expedition member, Maxime Charles Lester, wanted to continue their work and – against the advice of the Norwegian whalers they had sailed with - the two men remained, when Cope and Wilkins left. As their base, Bagshawe and Lester constructed a hut out of an abandoned wailing old boat and packing cases. They managed to continue their work, carrying out observations of weather conditions, tidal measurements and studies of penguins, before being picked up by a Norwegian whaling ship in January 1922. It remains the smallest ever expedition to over winter on Antarctica. On his return, Bagshawe was a Director of Bagshawe and Co - an iron founders established by his father - from 1925 to 1947. He wrote up his experiences in ''Two Men in the Antarctic''. Later, the Bagshawe Glacier, on the

Danco coast The Danco Coast () is the portion of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between Cape Sterneck and Cape Renard. This coast was explored in January and February 1898 by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien de Gerlache, who named it ...

of Antarctica, was named after him.

Second World War

During the Second World War Bagshawe served in the

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established in 1936 to support the preparedness of the U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) in the event of another war. The Air Ministry intended it to form a supplement to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force ( ...

and in

Combined Operations In current military use, combined operations are operations conducted by forces of two or more allied nations acting together for the accomplishment of a common strategy, a strategic and operational and sometimes tactical cooperation. Intera ...

Museum curator and folklorist

Bagshawe had a close interest in the history and folklore of Bedfordshire: between 1928 and 1947 he was the honorary curator, later honorary director, of

Luton Museum Wardown House Museum and Gallery, formerly Wardown Park Museum and, before that, the Luton Museum & Art Gallery, in Luton, is housed in a large Victorian mansion in Wardown Park on the outskirts of the town centre. The museum collection focuses ...

. In 1940 he became the Curator of the Cambridge Folk Museum, before handing curatorship of the museum to Enid Porter in 1947. In 1933 he was awarded the Museum Association's diploma. He was elected a

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...

in 1928 and of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

in 1932. Bagshawe was also a member of the Folklore Society, often submitting to its journal, news from museums with folklore and folk life collections. Bagshawe served as President of the

Folklore Society The Folklore Society (FLS) is a registered charity under English law based in London, England for the study of folklore. Its office is at 50 Fitzroy Street, London home of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. It wa ...

in 1955 and was also elected a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and the

Selected publications

* Bagshawe, Thomas Wyatt (1939). ''Two men in the Antarctic: an Expedition to Graham Land 1920-1922.'' Cambridge.

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

472189256. * Bagshawe, Thomas Wyatt (1940). ''Pompey was a Penguin''. London: Oxford University Press.

156587984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagshawe, T W 1901 births 1974 deaths British explorers Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Presidents of the Folklore Society Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II People educated at Rugby School