Early Life
Bagnold was born in Devonport, England. His father, Colonel Arthur Henry Bagnold (1854 - 1943) (Royal Engineers), participated in the rescue expedition 1884 - 1885 to rescue General Gordon in Khartoum. 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 the trenches in France, being Mentioned in Despatches in 1917 and receiving the Belgian Order of Leopold in 1919.
After the war Bagnold studied engineering at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, obtaining an MA before returning to active duty in 1921. He served in Cairo and the North West Frontier, India, where he was again mentioned in despatches. In both of these locations he spent much of his leave exploring the local deserts. After having read Hussein Bey's "Lost Oasis" he spent one such expedition in 1929 using a 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 World War II.
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