Modest scientist-turned-hero
‘‘He was doing the work no-one wanted to do.’’
Journalist Laurel Chor on Andrew Bagshaw
Andrew Bagshaw Aid worker and scientist b July 18, 1975 d January, 2023
Certain adjectives occur again and again when friends, family and colleagues talk about aid worker Andrew Bagshaw, who was killed in eastern Ukraine last month.
They include modest, reserved, compassionate, reliable, committed and heroic. There is one other. That word is determined.
When he thinks about his son, Dr Phil Bagshaw remembers he was always a humanitarian who was concerned about the welfare of people and animals. His mission to Ukraine was not at all out of character.
‘‘We tried to convince him otherwise, but his mind was made up and efforts to change it were futile,’’ he says. ‘‘When we asked him when he would come back, he said ‘Not until it is finished’.’’
Bagshaw, who was 47, and British aid worker Chris Parry, 28, disappeared in early January and their deaths were confirmed nearly three weeks later. A memorial service was held at St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv this week.
He was the first-born son of Phil and Dame Sue Bagshaw, doctors with a social conscience who left London for Christchurch in 1981 and are highly respected for their founding of the Canterbury Charity Hospital, along with youth mental and sexual health advocacy.
Bagshaw had two sisters and one brother and was educated at Paparoa Street School, Cobham Intermediate and Burnside High School before he went on to the University of Canterbury, where he completed a PhD in 2008.
His PhD supervisor, Professor Neil Gemmell, said in an obituary published on the University of Otago website that ‘‘Andrew was a genuine genius, easily one of the most extraordinary students I have trained’’.
Gemmell described him as having ‘‘extremely strong analytical skills and the ability to synthesise and link disparate areas of science in a way few other students could. It was a challenge keeping up with his reading and thinking on a topic, which was frequently two or more steps ahead of most others.’’
He recalled a line he wrote in a reference that seemed particularly poignant after Bagshaw’s death, which is that his former student will frequently do what he perceives to be the right thing to do.
‘‘He was a noble soul who I respected greatly,’’ Gemmell said.
After his PhD, Bagshaw did postdoctoral work at the University of Otago in Christchurch where he worked in the laboratory of Professor Martin Kennedy, now the Head of the Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science.
He remembered Bagshaw as ‘‘an extraordinary talent’’, well-liked, respected and hard-working.
‘‘He was a passionate scientist and extremely dedicated, running to the beat of his own drum in his work habits, often staying until late at night to complete tasks he had set himself,’’ Kennedy said in the University of Otago obituary.
‘‘He was quiet and thoughtful yet friendly at the same time, incredibly intelligent and clever.’’
Bagshaw then worked on a major project supported by a Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Grant investigating the role of genetics in human intelligence.
Kennedy did not see Bagshaw’s aid work as out of character. He said Bagshaw’s ‘‘innate generosity of spirit, selflessly dedicating his time and taking such personal risks to help others in dire need is of no surprise to those of us here who knew him’’.
As well as a geneticist, Bagshaw was also an excellent sailor and a private pilot, his father says. He never married nor had children.
The trip to Ukraine was Bagshaw’s first such mission. He told a reporter in 2022 that as he watched the Russian invasion unfold on television, he saw Ukrainians ‘‘going through hell’’ and bought a ticket to Poland.
He talked of being a volunteer driver in difficult situations, helping to move about 700 people to safety in 21⁄2 weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the rapid evacuation of the Donetsk province in July last year.
Journalist Laurel Chor spoke of the bravery displayed by Bagshaw on multiple occasions in the city of Bakhmut, which had been attacked by Russia’s paramilitary Wagner Group.
There were hair-raising rescues of elderly people trapped in ruined buildings under Russian fire.
In one instance, she saw Bagshaw knock on one door after another as shelling grew closer, looking for an elderly woman in a wheelchair, until all options were exhausted.
On another, she accompanied Bagshaw on a mission to evacuate a young woman whose abusive father would not let her go. He returned the next day with the fire department and eventually managed to mobilise the police, who ordered the pair to leave.
‘‘He was doing the work no-one wanted to do,’’ Chor said.
She recalled that he was doing this work on minimal resources. He drove, and sometimes slept in, an old red van. He made ends meet by doing freelance science editing and writing when he could.
He was based for a time in the city of Kramatorsk. He is understood to have been on a mission with Parry in Soledar, around 60km away from Kramatorsk, on January 6. They were trying to rescue an elderly woman when their car was hit by Russian artillery.
They were both reported missing a day later.
Given the heavy Russian presence in Soledar, hopes for their survival faded.
An Australian colleague, Bryce Wilson, paid tribute to Bagshaw on social media when he described ‘‘a reliable team-mate and colleague in the field’’, who did important work and directly contributed to saving many lives.
Former defence minister Ron Mark, who has been in Ukraine, said ‘‘he’s a bloody legend and he won’t be forgotten’’.
Statements from Bagshaw’s family in Christchurch were read in English and in translation during the memorial service in Kyiv this week. His friends in Kramatorsk are organising another memorial.
In a snowy street outside St Sophia Cathedral, journalist John Sweeney posted a video war diary, in which he described Bagshaw as ‘‘a New ZealandBritish guy who did something amazing. He went to the most frightening places in Ukraine and he rescued people’’.
Sweeney went on: ‘‘You could say what’s the point of dying in somebody else’s war. I would say something different to that. I would say that to die helping other people is the noblest death of all. Rest in peace Andy Bagshaw.’’
Phil Bagshaw hopes some lasting good can come from his son’s death.
‘‘He lived with the Ukrainian people, with whom he developed a great affinity, and was deeply concerned about the atrocities of this illegal and immoral war,’’ he says.
‘‘He never sought publicity, but his death must be turned to some positive call for an end to this insane conflict.’’
He and Sue said in a media statement that ‘‘Andrew selflessly took many personal risks and saved many lives; we love him and are very proud indeed of what he did’’.