 Guy Lenox Prendergast was one of a group of British Saharan explorers in the late 1920s and early 1930s, which included Ralph Alger Bagnold, Pat Clayton and Bill Kennedy Shaw, who had explored the desert before World War 2 and had gained much valuable experience in navigating its hostile terrain.Prendergast learnt to fly as part of the Western Arab Corps in Sudan in the 1930s.After the outbreak of World War 2 Prendergast received a commission with the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment.