The earliest acquisition of papers consists of logs, 1854 to 1867, and diaries, 1880 to 1890. The second acquisition consists mostly of large and small volumes, a few diaries, and official and private letters, including some correspondence re the National Antarctic Expedition and Captain R.F. Scott. The third acquisition consists of two logbooks from HMS CHALLENGER, 1872-1875. The Museum also has twenty charts relating to Tizard and the CHALLENGER: please contact the Hydrography Section for further details.

Administrative / biographical background
Tizard was educated at the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, and entered the Navy as a master's assistant in 1854. He served in the DRAGON with the Baltic Fleet during the Crimean War and then in the Mediterranean. In 1857 he was appointed to the INDUS on the North American and West Indies Station. On his return home in 1860 he was promoted to second master and served for just over a year in a cadets' training ship. In 1861 he was appointed to the surveying ship RIFLEMAN on the China Station. Following his promotion in 1864 to master, he commanded the Rifleman's tender SARACEN on surveys in the South China Sea. Between 1868 and 1879 he was first employed in survey ships in the Mediterranean and then on the oceanographic voyage of the CHALLENGER. He was promoted to staff commander in 1874. In 1880 he was appointed to command the KNIGHT ERRANT on the survey of the west coast of Britain. In 1882 he commissioned the TRITON for work on the east coast survey also both in 1880 and 1882 he took scientific expeditions to the Faeroe-Shetland Channel. In 1889 he was promoted to staff captain and in 1891 he was appointed Assistant Hydrographer of the Navy and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He continued to serve at the Admiralty until 1907 but was placed on the retired list, with the rank of captain in 1896. As a Fellow of the Royal Society, Tizard became a member of the Antarctic Executive Committee in 1899. Some details about Tizard are contained in the biography of his son, Sir Henry Tizard, 'Tizard' by Ronald W Clark (London, 1965).