Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe was born on 18 April 1901. He went to Rugby school and read geology at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, but abandoned his studies to join the British Expedition to Graham Land, 1920-1922 (leader John Lachlan Cope). Bagshawe and his companion, Maxime Charles Lester, travelled south in a whaling ship to Deception Island ahead of the leader Cope and second-in-command George Hubert Wilkins. The party transferred to Andvord Bay, on the Danco Coast of Graham Land where they intended to set up a base. However, insufficient finance curtailed the expedition, and Cope and Wilkins withdrew. Bagshawe and Lester decided to remain, setting up a base at Waterboat Point on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between January 1921 and January 1922. Though ill equipped and with few comforts, they carried out scientific observations, including a study of the breeding biology of the neighbouring gentoo penguins.
On his return to Britain, Bagshawe joined the family engineering business in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. From 1924 to 1947, he was honorary curator, and later honorary director of the Luton Museum, and was also honorary curator of the Cambridge Folk Museum from 1940 to 1946. He became involved in local affairs, researching into the early trades and crafts of Bedfordshire and in 1949 was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. He died in Worthing on 28 January 1976.
Published work, Two men in the Antarctic. An expedition to Graham Land, 1920-1922 Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe, Cambridge University Press Cambridge (1939) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(08)[1920-1922 Bagshawe and Lester]
From the guide to the Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe collection, 1920-1939, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)
