the absence of facts about his demise, legends quickly grew up about the man and his fate, and he was reputed to have become the model for the fictional character, Indiana Jones. However, truth often proves to be stranger than any fiction, and only recently has it been fully appreciated that Fawcett believed the earth was largely hollow and he was, in fact, looking for the lost city of Atlantis, still inhabited by Atlanteans, in caves deep beneath the surface of Brazil.

Be all that as it may, although history has concentrated its gaze on the conundrum of Percy Fawcett, his brother Douglas is an equally flamboyant subject for study.

In 1869 a sister Myra Evelyn was born, and Blanche Helen followed the year after. However, by 1881 the familyhad been living at No. 3, Barnpark Terrace, Teignmouth for several years for a third sister, Beatrice, had been born there and was already 4 years old.

Douglas was educated locally at Newton Abbot Proprietary College before winning a Queen’s Scholarship to Westminster School, and his brother Percy followed him through both schools.

Tragedy struck shortly after when their father died on 26th September 1884 at the age of 44, leaving a widow and five children. The 1891 census records that Myra was living at 24, Lansdowne Place, Hove, Sussex, with her three daughters, all unmarried and none with any stated occupation, Evelyn (21), Blanche (20) and Beatrice (14). The mother was listed as “living on own means”, so life could not have been terribly hard for them. However, the