David Haig-Thomas (1 December 1908 – 6 June 1944) was a British ornithologist, wildlife photographer, explorer, and rower who competed for Great Britain in the 1932 Summer Olympics.
[3] In 1933 he went on an expedition to Abyssinia with his school contemporary Wilfred Thesiger to trace the route of the Awash River.
Other members of the expedition were Shackleton, photographer and biologist A. W. Moore (sometimes listed as Morris), H. W. Stallworthy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and geologist R. Bentham.
From 1937 to 1938, he led a British Arctic Expedition in northwest Greenland and Ellesmere Island, accompanied by John Wright and Richard Hamilton.
They left Etah in March 1938 and crossed Ellesmere Island where they met up with the MacGregor Arctic Expedition.
[5] Haig-Thomas's collection of Arctic objects from Greenland and northern Canada was donated in two instalments to the British Museum.
[3] Shortly after the outbreak of the war, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps on 2 March 1940.