28 Facts About Percy Fawcett

Percy Harrison Fawcett was a British geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer of South America.

Percy Fawcett disappeared in 1925 during an expedition to find an ancient lost city which he and others believed existed in the Amazon rainforest.

Percy Fawcett was born on 18 August 1867 in Torquay, Devon, to Edward Boyd Fawcett and Myra Elizabeth.

Percy Fawcett's father had been born in India, and was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, while his elder brother, Edward Douglas Percy Fawcett, was a mountain climber, Eastern occultist and the author of philosophical books and popular adventure novels.

That same year, Percy Fawcett met his future wife, Nina Agnes Paterson, whom he married in 1901 and had two sons, Jack and Brian, and one daughter, Joan.

On 13 January 1896, Percy Fawcett was appointed Adjutant of the 1st Cornwall Artillery Volunteers, and was promoted to captain on 15 June 1897.

Percy Fawcett later served in Hong Kong, Malta and Trincomalee, Ceylon.

Percy Fawcett joined the RGS in 1901 with the aim of studying surveying and mapmaking.

Percy Fawcett served for the War Office on Spike Island in County Cork from 1903 to 1906, where he was promoted to major on 11 January 1905.

Percy Fawcett became friends with authors Conan Doyle and Sir Henry Rider Haggard; the former used Percy Fawcett's Amazonian field reports as inspiration for his novel The Lost World.

Percy Fawcett reported other mysterious animals unknown to zoology, such as a small cat-like dog about the size of a foxhound, which he claimed to have seen twice, and the giant Apazauca spider, which was said to have poisoned a number of locals.

Percy Fawcett was mostly amicable with the local indigenous peoples through gifts, patience and courteous behaviour.

In 1911, Percy Fawcett returned to the Amazon and charted hundreds of miles of unexplored jungle, accompanied by his trusted, longtime exploring companion, Henry Costin, and biologist and polar explorer James Murray.

Percy Fawcett theorized that a complex civilization once existed in the region and that isolated ruins might have survived.

Percy Fawcett found a document known as Manuscript 512, written after explorations made in the sertao of the state of Bahia, and housed at the National Library in Rio de Janeiro.

In Brazil, Percy Fawcett carried a jade statue of a human figure with inscriptions on the chest and feet that he claimed had supernatural powers over the indigenous tribes of the Amazon.

At the beginning of the First World War, Percy Fawcett returned to Britain to serve with the British Army as a reserve officer in the Royal Artillery, volunteering for duty in Flanders and commanding an artillery brigade despite being nearly fifty years old.

Percy Fawcett was promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel on 1 March 1918, and received three mentions in despatches from Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, in November 1916, November 1917, and November 1918.

Percy Fawcett was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in June 1917.

In 1924, Percy Fawcett returned to Brazil with his eldest son Jack and Jack's longtime friend, Raleigh Rimmel, for an exploratory expedition to find "Z".

Percy Fawcett left instructions stating that if the expedition did not return, no rescue expedition should be sent lest the rescuers suffer his fate.

In 1927, a nameplate of Percy Fawcett's was found with an indigenous tribe.

In June 1933, a theodolite compass belonging to Percy Fawcett was found near the Baciary Indians of Mato Grosso by Colonel Aniceto Botelho.

Dead Horse Camp, or Percy Fawcett's Camp, was his last known location.

One question remaining about Dead Horse Camp concerns a discrepancy in the coordinates Percy Fawcett gave for its location.

Percy Fawcett believed that Fawcett had succumbed to either a lack of food or exhaustion.

In 1951, Orlando Villas-Boas, activist for indigenous peoples, received what were claimed to be the actual remaining skeletal bones of Percy Fawcett and had them analysed scientifically.

The bodies of Jack and Rimmel were thrown into the river; Percy Fawcett, considered an old man and therefore distinguished, received a proper burial.