Ralph Alger “Baggers” Bagnold
Lieutenant Colonel · #10231 · OBE, MID
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
|---|---|
| Service number | #10231 |
| Known as | “Baggers” |
| Born | 1896 |
| Honours | OBE, MID |
What this roll records
LONDON COMPRESSED THE THREE FOUNDERS INTO ONE MAN, AND A NEW ZEALAND PAPER PRINTED IT. A second cable in the Wanganui Chronicle of 15 February 1941, datelined London 13 February and received at 11.20 p.m. the night before, says: “The Long-Range Desert Group is commanded by a lieutenant-colonel famed as an explorer in the Libyan Desert, who was formerly a British official of the Egyptian Survey Department and a member of the Palestine Department of Antiquities.” THAT IS THREE MEN, NOT ONE: Bagnold the explorer and commander, Clayton of the Egyptian Survey Department, and Kennedy Shaw of the Palestine Department of Antiquities. The Cairo despatch printed in the same papers two days to a month later names all three correctly and separately. The London error is left as printed and recorded here because it is the kind of mistake that gets copied forward. Source: Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 39, 15 February 1941, page 6, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand).
Founding CO: Lt.Col. R.A. Bagnold O.B.E., joined Jul 1940 (R. Corps of Signals). LRDG Unit Casualty Returns (A.F. 3010), Appendix 3 officers list (source: Brendan O'Carroll).
On original LRP Roll (5 Dec 1940): HQ — Founder LRP; Lt-Col OC LRDG; Col Staff Officer GHQ MEF. Source: LRP Roll (Original LRP Nominal Roll as at 5 Dec 1940, Capt L H Browne).
Deeper background (2026): the LRDG's founder and first commander (Jul 1940 – Aug 1941, when he handed over to Guy Prendergast). Ralph Alger Bagnold, b. 3 Apr 1896 (Plymouth), d. 28 May 1990. His OBE was gazetted as “Major (temp. Lt-Col) Ralph Alger Bagnold (10231), Royal Corps of Signals” (The London Gazette, supp. 35209, p.3882, 4 Jul 1941); Mentioned in Despatches 30 Dec 1941. Sources: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35209/supplement/3882 ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Bagnold
Sun compass: Bagnold designed the sun compass the LRDG used for desert navigation — a graduated dial read by the shadow a central needle cast in sunlight, giving a true bearing free of the magnetic errors that the steel of the vehicles (and local iron-bearing rock) caused to an ordinary compass. Refined during his 1920s–30s motor expeditions in the Libyan Desert, it was central to the group's ability to cross featureless country and find its way to a target and back again.
The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll): Brig. R. A. Bagnold — Founders' Medal, Royal Geographical Society; Fellow of the Royal Society; born England, 1896; Royal Engineers on the Western Front 1915–18; Royal Corps of Signals 1920; original Commanding Officer LRP and LRDG 1940–41; Inspector of Desert Troops, GHQ MEF, Aug 1941.
The Kiwi Scorpions (Brendan O'Carroll) — formation of the LRP patrols, 1940: On the unit's formation in 1940, Major Bagnold was appointed commanding officer — one of several men present in the Middle East who had explored the Libyan Desert before the war.
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision (New Zealand Archive of Film, Television and Sound) — archival material: https://www.ngataonga.org.nz/search-use-collection/search/11742/
Founder and first commanding officer of the Long Range Patrols / LRDG. A pre-war explorer of the Libyan Desert, he proposed the patrols in 1940, chose and adapted their 30-cwt trucks, and led the first military crossing of the Egyptian Sand Sea (September 1940). Commanded the Anglo-French force at Kufra in 1941 before joining GHQ Cairo as Inspector of Desert Troops. Source: ‘Long Range Desert Group in Libya, 1940–41’, Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (NZ official war history).
OBE, m.i.d.; Founders’ Medal RGS; FRS; born England, 1896. Royal Engineers, Western Front 1915–18. Original CO of the LRP and LRDG 1940–41; Inspector of Desert Troops, GHQ MEF, Aug 1941. Source: Episodes & Studies Vol. 1 (biographical notes).
HIS FULL NAME, from the Imperial War Museums Sound Archive. This card gave him as “Ralph A Bagnold”; IWM catalogue his oral history under “Ralph Alger Bagnold”, catalogue 9862, and took the name from the man himself. Source: Imperial War Museums, iwm.org.uk, checked 5 September 2026.
See him in the full roll →Where this comes from
- AKA added from the LRDG Preservation Society’s Troopers roll (missing information).
- LRDG Nominal Roll, 28 Dec 1940 – Jan 1941 (courtesy Tarek el Mahdy) — roll rank: Lieutenant-Colonel
This page is part of the Long Range Desert Group roll of members at lrdgarchive.org. If you hold rights to anything on it and would like it credited differently, or taken down, please see Sources and Copyright. It will be dealt with promptly.
Not By Strength But By Guile