Pilgrim was born the son of Henry Ellcock Pilgrim and Beatrice Lucy Wrenford. After studies at the local Harrison College, he attended University College London where he received his Bachelor of Science in 1901 and Doctor of Science in 1908. He was appointed to the Geological Survey of India in 1902 and promoted to superintendent in 1920, a post he held until his retirement in 1930. He spent much of his retirement at the Department of Geology at the British Museum.[1]
Pilgrim explored the geology of Arabia and Persia. He was the first European to visit parts of Trucial Oman and the first geologist to explore Bahrain Island where his discoveries lead to the present oil exploitations there.[1]
Publications
Title
Year
The geology of the Persian gulf and adjoining portions of Persia and Arabia by Pilgrim
1908
The fossil Giraffidae of India
1911
Fossil mammals, India and Burma
1911
The vertebrate fauna of the Gaj series in the Bugti Hills and the Punjab
1912
Collected papers
1913
New Siwalik primates and their bearing on the question of the evolution of man and the anthropoidea
1915
The geology of parts of the Persian provinces of Fars, Kirman, and Laristan
1925
The Perissodactyla of the Eocene of Burma
1926
The fossil Suidae of India
1926
The fossil Carnivora of India
1927
Geological map of the Simla Hills
1927
A Sivapithecus palate and other primate fossils from India
1927
Catalogue of the Pontian Bovidae of Europe in the Department of Geology
1928
The structure and correlation of the Simla rocks
1928
The Artiodactyla of the Eocene of Burma
1928
Catalogue of the Pontian Carnivora of Europe in the Department of Geology by British Museum (Natural History). Dept. of Geology
1931
A fossil skunk from Samos
1933
Two new species of sheep-like antelope from the Miocene of Mongolia
1934
Correlation of ossiferous sections in the Upper Cenozoic of India
1934
Siwalik antelopes and oxen in the American Museum of Natural History
1937
The fossil Bovidae of India
1939
The screw-horned antelope of the European Upper Pliocaens and its systematic position