{{Short description|British naturalist, ornithologist, and museum curator}} {{Use British English|date=December 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Infobox academic | honorific_prefix = | name =Reginald Wagstaffe | honorific_suffix = | image = Reginald_Wagstaffe.jpg | image_size = | alt = Black and white image of Reginald Wagstaffe, a middle-aged man. He is outside and wearing a coat. | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date ={{Birth date|df=yes|1907|07|28}} | birth_place = | death_date =1983 | death_place = | death_cause = | occupation = Ornithologist<br>Museum curator | awards = | alma_mater = University of Cincinnati | thesis_year = | discipline = | sub_discipline = | workplaces = {{plainlist| *Stockport Municipal Museum *Yorkshire Museum *Liverpool City Museum *British Birds Rarities Committee }} }} '''Reginald Wagstaffe''' (28 July 1907 – 1983) was an English naturalist, ornithologist, and museum curator. He was curator of the Yorkshire Museum, and then from 1948 was the Keeper of Vertebrate Zoology at Liverpool City Museum. Wagstaffe founded the Liverpool Ornithologist's Club.
==Career== Wagstaffe was born in the UK on the 28th July 1907, and attended the University of Cincinnati to study ornithology.<ref name="BB">{{cite web |date=1983 |title=News and comment: Reginald Wagstaffe (1907-1983) |url=https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V76/V76_N12/V76_N12_P589_593_NC156.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181030170415/https://britishbirds.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/article_files/V76/V76_N12/V76_N12_P589_593_NC156.pdf |archive-date=30 Oct 2018 |publisher=British Birds}}</ref> He was appointed Curator of the Yorkshire Museum in January 1941, replacing Walter Collinge, having formerly been Curator of the Stockport Municipal Museum.<ref name="Pyrah">{{cite book |author1=Pyrah, B. |title=The History of the Yorkshire Museum and its Geological Collections |date=1988 |publisher=North Yorkshire County Council |pages=120–125}}</ref> Wagstaffe lived with his wife, Trissie, in Manor Cottage, a building next to the Museum in the grounds of York Museum Gardens. They were living here during the Baedeker Raid on York on 29 April 1942, during which a bomb narrowly missed the Museum, but caused considerable damage to the roof and windows. Wagstaffe led the efforts to clean up the museum and salvage the Type fossils from the wreckage.<ref name='Pyrah' />
Wagstaffe worked with the Honorary Curators of Entomology, Walter Douglas Hincks and A Smith to collect specimens for the museum from Askham Bog.<ref name=YPS42>{{cite report |title=Annual report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1942 |publisher=Yorkshire Philosophical Society |date=1943 |page=3 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/264040#page/11/mode/1up}}</ref> He also worked with Hincks to bring the Ellis collection of insects to the museum in 1945.<ref name=Den>{{cite book |author1=Denton, M. |date=1993 |title=Ground Beetles in the Yorkshire Museum | publisher=North Yorkshire County Council |pages=5–8}}</ref>
He left the Yorkshire Museum in 1948 to take up the post of Keeper of Vertebrate Zoology at Liverpool City Museum where he remained for the rest of his working life, founding the Liverpool Ornithologist's Club and serving as a member of the British Birds Rarities Committee from 1963 to 1970.<ref name='BB' /> Some specimens collected by Wagstaffe at in Te Papa national museum in New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Reginald Wagstaffe |url=https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/19515 |access-date=2025-04-26 |website=collections.tepapa.govt.nz |language=en}}</ref>
==Publications== *Wagstaffe, R. and Fidler, J. H. 1957. ''The preservation of natural history specimens''. London. *Wagstaffe, R. 1978. ''Type specimens of birds in the Merseyside County Museums : formerly City of Liverpool Museums''. Liverpool.
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wagstaffe, Reginald}} Category:1907 births Category:English curators Category:1983 deaths Category:English ornithologists Category:Yorkshire Museum people Category:University of Cincinnati alumni Category:20th-century British zoologists Category:Place of birth missing Category:English naturalists