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{{Infobox person
|name = Ralph Alger Bagnold
| honorific_suffix = [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]], [[OBE]], [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|
|image = Ralph_Alger_Bagnold.jpg
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1896|4|3}}
|birth_place = [[Plymouth]],
|death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1990|5|28|1896|4|3}}
|death_place =
|death_cause =
|nationality =
|other_names =
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|occupation =
|height =
|boards =
|spouse = Dorothy Alice Bagnold
|children =
|module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
|allegiance =
|branch = {{army|United Kingdom}}
|serviceyears = 1915−1935, 1939-1944
|servicenumber = 10231
|
|unit = [[Royal Engineers]]<br>[[Royal Corps of Signals]]
|battles = [[World War I|First World War]]<br>[[World War II|Second World War]]
}}
}}
[[File:Namib dune, Gale Crater Mars.jpg|thumb|upright=1.43182|Part of the Bagnold Dune Field in [[Gale (crater)|Gale Crater]] on [[Mars]], named to honour Brigadier Bagnold.]]
'''Ralph Alger Bagnold''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]],<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7681115&queryType=1&resultcount=1 Documents online: Ralph Alger Bagnold's OBE, awarded 8 July 1941.] The National Archives. Retrieved 22 May 2010.</ref> [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]],<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Kenn | first1 = M. J. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1991.0003 | title = Ralph Alger Bagnold. 3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 37 | pages = 56–68| year = 1991 }}</ref> (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was an [[English people|English]] 20th-century desert explorer, [[geologist]] and soldier.▼
▲[[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] '''Ralph Alger Bagnold''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]],<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7681115&queryType=1&resultcount=1 Documents online: Ralph Alger Bagnold's OBE, awarded 8 July 1941.] The National Archives. Retrieved 22 May 2010.</ref> [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]],<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | last1 = Kenn | first1 = M. J. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1991.0003 | title = Ralph Alger Bagnold. 3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 37 | pages = 56–68| year = 1991 | s2cid = 72031353 }}</ref> (3 April 1896 – 28 May 1990) was an [[English people|English]] 20th-century desert explorer, [[geologist]] and soldier.
Bagnold served in the First World War as an engineer in the British Army.
During the [[World War II|Second World War]], he was a soldier in the [[British Army]], in which he founded the behind-the-lines [[reconnaissance]], [[espionage]] and [[Raid (military)|raiding]] unit that was named the "[[Long Range Desert Group]]", serving as its first commanding officer in the [[North Africa Campaign]].▼
In 1932, he staged the first recorded East-to-West crossing of the [[Libyan Desert]]. His work in the field of [[Aeolian processes]] was the basis for the book ''[[The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes]]'', establishing the discipline of aeolian geomorphology, combining field work observations, experiments and physical equations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bagnold |first=R. A. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-94-009-5682-7 |title=The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes |date=1971 |publisher=[[Chapman & Hall]] |isbn=978-94-009-5684-1 |location=London |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-94-009-5682-7 |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref> His work has been used by United States' space agency [[NASA]] in its study of the terrain of the planet [[Mars]], the [[Bagnold Dunes]] on Mars' surface were named after him by the organisation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.i4u.com/2015/12/100929/nasa-s-curiosity-rover-investigates-mars-sand-dunes-first-time|title=NASA's Curiosity Rover Studies Mars Sand Dunes for the First Time|last=Bashir|first=Hira|date=12 December 2015|publisher=I4U News|access-date=21 December 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=O'Connell-Cooper |first1=C. D. |last2=Spray |first2=J. G. |last3=Thompson |first3=L. M. |last4=Gellert |first4=R. |last5=Berger |first5=J. A. |last6=Boyd |first6=N. I. |last7=Desouza |first7=E. D. |last8=Perrett |first8=G. M. |last9=Schmidt |first9=M. |last10=VanBommel |first10=S. J. |date=2017 |title=APXS-derived chemistry of the Bagnold dune sands: Comparisons with Gale Crater soils and the global Martian average |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets |language=en |volume=122 |issue=12 |pages=2623–2643 |doi=10.1002/2017JE005268 |issn=2169-9097|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bridges |first1=Nathan T. |last2=Ehlmann |first2=Bethany L. |date=2018 |title=The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Bagnold Dunes Campaign, Phase I: Overview and introduction to the special issue |journal=Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets |language=en |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=3–19 |doi=10.1002/2017JE005401 |issn=2169-9097 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Mariah M. |last2=Lapotre |first2=Mathieu G. A. |last3=Minitti |first3=Michelle E. |last4=Newman |first4=Claire E. |last5=Sullivan |first5=Robert |last6=Weitz |first6=Catherine M. |last7=Rubin |first7=David M. |last8=Vasavada |first8=Ashwin R. |last9=Bridges |first9=Nathan T. |last10=Lewis |first10=Kevin W. |date=2018 |title=The Bagnold Dunes in Southern Summer: Active Sediment Transport on Mars Observed by the Curiosity Rover |journal=Geophysical Research Letters |language=en |volume=45 |issue=17 |pages=8853–8863 |doi=10.1029/2018GL079040 |issn=0094-8276 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Connell-Cooper |first=Catherine |title=Recap of the Bagnold Dune Investigation |url=https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission-updates/recap-of-the-bagnold-dune-investigation?mu=recap-of-the-bagnold-dune-investigation |access-date=20 October 2023 |website=NASA Mars Exploration |language=en}}</ref>
▲
==Early life==
Bagnold was born in [[Devonport, Devon|Devonport]], England. His father, Colonel Arthur Henry Bagnold (1854–1943) ([[Royal Engineers]]), participated in the [[Nile Expedition|rescue expedition of 1884–85]] to rescue [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]] in [[Khartoum]]. His sister was the novelist and playwright [[Enid Bagnold]], who wrote the 1935 novel ''[[National Velvet]]''.▼
▲Bagnold was born in [[Devonport, Devon|Devonport]], England. His father, Colonel Arthur Henry Bagnold (1854–1943) ([[Royal Engineers]]), participated in the [[Nile Expedition|rescue expedition of 1884–85]] to rescue [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]] in [[Khartoum]], [[Sudan]]. His sister was the novelist and playwright [[Enid Bagnold]], who wrote the 1935 novel ''[[National Velvet]]''.
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 [[Western Front (World War I)|the trenches in France]], being [[Mentioned in Despatches|mentioned in despatches]] in 1917 and receiving the Belgian [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]] in 1919.<ref name=hh>{{cite web|last=Houterman|first=Hans|author2=Koppes, Jeroen |title=British Army Officers – 1939–1945: Babbage, C.A.E. to Bartlett, W.J.O.|work=World War II Unit Histories|url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_B01.html|access-date=12 December 2010}}</ref>▼
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, after having graduated from the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=29063|page=1329|date=9 February 1915}}</ref>
After the war Bagnold studied engineering at [[Gonville and Caius College]], [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], obtaining an [[Master of Arts (Oxbridge and Dublin)|MA]] before returning to active duty with the British Army in 1920 with the [[Royal Corps of Signals]]. He served in [[Cairo]] and the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–55)|North West Frontier]], India, where he was again mentioned in dispatches.<ref name=hh /> 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 (1927–31)|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]]. After a brief period of [[half-pay]], he left the Army in 1935 but rejoined upon the outbreak of the Second World War.<ref name=hh />▼
▲
▲After the war Bagnold studied engineering at [[Gonville and Caius College
==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 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 [[truck|lorry]] tipped violently backwards—and we rose as in a lift, smoothly without vibration. We floated up on a yellow cloud. All the accustomed [[automobile|car]] movements had ceased; only the [[speedometer]] told us we were still moving fast. It was incredible ..." However, noted [[Sir Fitzroy Maclean, 1st Baronet|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."
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==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."▼
▲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."{{cn |date=March 2024 }}
On 10 June 1940 Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in alliance with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] 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]] 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 [[Long Range Desert Group]] (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 (British Army officer)|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 [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]].{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}▼
▲On 10 June 1940 Italy declared war on the United Kingdom in alliance with [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] 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]] 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 [[Long Range Desert Group]] (L.R.D.G.). After assembling its first formation, Bagnold was the L.R.D.G.'s
In October 1941 he was promoted to the post of Deputy Signal Officer-in-Chief Middle East, with the [[temporary rank]] of [[Brigadier (United Kingdom)|Brigadier]] and worked on camouflage and deception operations. He left after six months in March 1942, visiting [[Gaza City|Gaza]], Brummana and Jerusalem (October 1942), Sudan and Eritrea (December 1942) and Turkey (May 1943 and August 1943) before returning to England in March 1944.<ref>{{citation |first=Ruary Mackenzie |last= Dodds |url= https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/news/archives-centre/the-missing-months-of-a-modest-man-colonel-ralph-bagnold-october-1941-to-march-1942/ |title=The missing months of a modest man: Colonel Ralph Bagnold – October 1941 to March 1942 |publisher= Churchill College, Cambridge|date= 26 July 2022 |accessdate= 22 February 2022}}</ref><ref>[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/archival_objects/417156 Diary, 1939-08 - 1944-05, The Papers of Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold.] Churchill Archives Centre, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 22 February 2022.</ref>
On 7 June 1944 Bagnold retired from the British Army with the end of military operations in North Africa after the [[Axis powers]]' defeat in that theatre.<ref name=hh /> and returned to his scientific interests, being elected to a Fellowship of the [[Royal Society]] in the same year.<ref name="frs"/>
==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]], [[ripple marks|ripples]] and [[sand sheet|sheets]]. He developed the dimensionless "[[Bagnold number]]" and "[[Bagnold formula]]" for characterising sand flow. He gave a constitutive relation for [[Bagnold rheology|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 [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]].<ref>{{cite web|title=G.K. Warren Prize|work=Awards|publisher=[[National Academy of Sciences]]|url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_warren|access-date=4 June 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819223522/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_warren|archive-date=19 August 2007|df=dmy-all}}</ref> In 1971 he received the [[Wollaston Medal]], the highest award granted by the [[Geological Society of London]],<ref>{{cite web|work=Award winners since 1831|title=Wollaston Medal|publisher=The Geological Society|url=http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/null/lang/en/page750.html|access-date=8 March 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819015708/http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/null/lang/en/page750.html|archive-date=19 August 2010|df=dmy-all}}</ref> and in 1981 the [[David Linton Award]] of the [[British Geomorphological Research Group]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Warren | first1 = A | year = 1990 | title = Obituary: Brigadier R. A. Bagnold 1896–1990 | journal = Geographical Journal | volume = 156 | issue = 3| pages = 353–354 }}</ref> He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1974.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=[[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]|access-date=5 May 2011}}</ref> Other awards included the 1970 [[Penrose Medal]] by the [[Geological Society of America]]; and the [[Sorby Medal]] from the International Association of Sedimentologists. He also received honorary D.Sc. degrees from both the [[University of East Anglia]] and the Danish [[University of Aarhus]].
==Death==
In his final years, Bagnold lived in [[Edenbridge, Kent|Edenbridge]] in the county of [[Kent]] in England. He died at [[Hither Green]] on 28 May 1990 at the age of 94.<ref>Obituary for Ralph Bagnold, 'Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society', Vol.37, November 1991.</ref>
==Personal life==
Bagnold married Dorothy on 8 May 1946 at [[Rottingdean]] in [[East Sussex]], and had a son and a daughter.<ref name=hh />
== Honours and awards ==
* [[
* [[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]] 8 July 1941
* [[Mentioned in Despatches]] 2 January 1917, 1 September 1931, 30 December 1941
* [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Knight, Order of Leopold with palm]] (Belgium), 5 April 1919, etc.
==See also==▼
*[[Aeolian processes]]▼
*[[Bagnold formula]]▼
*[[Bagnold number]]▼
*[[Bill Kennedy Shaw]]▼
*[[Guy Prendergast (British Army officer)|Guy Lenox Prendergast]]▼
*[[Pat Clayton]]▼
== References ==▼
{{Reflist}}▼
==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.
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#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, {{ISBN|978-0-8165-1211-9}}, 202 pp.
▲==See also==
▲*[[Aeolian processes]]
▲*[[Bagnold formula]]
▲*[[Bagnold number]]
▲*[[Bill Kennedy Shaw]]
▲*[[Guy Prendergast (British Army officer)|Guy Lenox Prendergast]]
▲*[[Pat Clayton]]
▲== References ==
▲{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070609233209/http://home.imf.au.dk/oebn/blownsand.mpg A short film containing an interview with R.A. Bagnold]
*[http://www.unithistories.com/officers/Army_officers_B01.html#Bagnold_RA British Army Officers 1939–1945]
*[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=014-ncuacs35392&cid=0#0 Catalogue of the papers and correspondence of Brigadier Ralph Alger Bagnold] held at [[Churchill Archives Centre]]. The National Archives.
*[http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80009645 Imperial War Museum Interview]
*[https://generals.dk/general/Bagnold/Ralph_Alger/Great_Britain.html Generals of World War II]
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[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Wollaston Medal winners]]
[[Category:Order of Leopold (Belgium)]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
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[[Category:Process geomorphologists]]
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[[Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich]]
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[[Category:Sedimentologists]]
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[[Category:Scientists from Plymouth, Devon]]
[[Category:British Army brigadiers of World War II]]
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