A very talented mathematician, Tregarthen graduated from London University and became a teacher at Trinity College School in  Stratford-upon-Avon.  He bought the school and was its headmaster between 1885 and 1900 when he sold it and retired back to Penzance.  Retirement enabled Tregarthen to pursue, and write about, his naturalist interests.

Between 1927 and 1929, Tregarthen was President of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (February 5^th) and was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd, taking the bardic name Mylgarer meaning ‘Lover of Wild Animals’.

Tregarthen’s most notable publications were ‘The Life Story of an Otter’ (1909), ‘Wild Life at the Land’s End’ (1904), ‘The Story of a Hare’ (1912), a novel ‘John Penrose: A Romance of the Land's End’ (1923) and a travel guide ‘Cornwall - England’s Riviera: A Guide to the Charm, Lure, Industry and Residential Advantages of the Duchy of Cornwall’ (1930).

John Penrose is written within the great tradition of Victorian and Edwardian adventure novels epitomised by John Buchan and Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (May 12^th) and tells of the adventures of a  farm boy who gets involved in poaching and smuggling, with very rich descriptions of the countryside and wildlife and farming customs.