Bagnold, R. A. (Ralph Alger), Brigadier, 1896-1990.

Born 1896, educated Malvern College and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. First World War service with Royal Engineers 1915-1918. Gonville & Caius College Cambridge (Engineering Tripos) 1919-1921, return to army with Royal Corps of Signals 1922-1935 (service in Ireland, Egypt, India, China). Desert expeditions in Middle East and North Africa between 1926 and 1932 recounted in his Libyan Sands. Travel in a dead world (London 1935). Research 1935-1939 culuminating in The physics of blown sand and desert dunes (London 1941). Recalled to army 1939, in Egypt. Founded Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) behind enemy lines in Western Desert. Fellow of The Royal Society 1944. Director of Research for Shell Refining and Marketing Company, 1947-1949, then research at Imperial College London on transport of solids by water flow. Consultant to U.S. Geological Survey and to NASA. Later he returned to research on random distributions, work which had its origins in observations made in 1927.