Richard Siddoway Bagnall was born into a prominent industrial family from the north-east of England, and throughout his life and career tried to balance his commitment to his business with his interest in entomology, which brought him much recreation and enjoyment. As a young man Bagnall was friendly in Edwardian entomological circles and very active in the founding years of the Vale of Derwent Naturalists' Field Club, a workers recreational natural history group in County Durham. At age 27 Bagnall had the chance to work as a professional taxonomist with the Museum collections at Oxford University but the pull of his business and the First Word War derailed his plans. Bagnall was party to some career controversies, especially regarding the dispersal of his Thysanoptera (Thrips) collection in the 1930s, but his reputation allowed him to continue working with insects to some degree until almost the end of his life.

The Digitisation Team at the Natural History Museum, London has recently completed the digitisation of the NHM’s c.95,000 Thysanoptera slides, including around 5,000 that originate from Bagnall’s collection - of which approximately 1,200 represent his primary or secondary types. This biography was written as part of research into Bagnall's collection, and will be followed by a future paper on Bagnall's types.