Peter Conder, OBE (20 March 1919 – 8 October 1993) was a British ornithologist and conservationist known predominantly for his contribution as Director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

[4][5] As war approached, Conder joined the Territorial Army, and was commissioned into the 2nd London Regiment, Royal Corps of Signals.

When the British Expeditionary Force was sent to France (with World War I weapons) in 1939, he was deployed with the Royal Ulster Rifles, the Coldstream and the Grenadier Guards near Lille.

[7] From July 1940 to March 1941, Conder was incarcerated in Oflag VII-C, a prisoner-of-war-camp located in Laufen Castle on the banks of the Salzach river, Germany.

The birdwatching prisoners stationed themselves on a slag heap in the upper part of the camp where they had an overall view of the sky and horizon and could watch and record the birds that passed.

He was arrested by the German guards in early 1942 as suspicions arose over his motives, as he was in a position to acquire intelligence for prisoners digging tunnels.

In 1954 he became assistant secretary of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), responsible for acquisition and management of nature reserves, research, prosecutions, monitoring oil pollution and pesticides, and the protection of rare birds including of the ospreys at Loch Garten, Strathspey.

Conservation achievements included the RSPB's contribution to the successful campaign to stop the use of organochlorine pesticides, ospreys had become established once more as a breeding species in Britain, the society's list of nature reserves was added to each year and the realisation of the significance of research to successful nature conservation, an applied science, was beginning to be taken seriously by government.

Conder spent the next decade serving on training programmes, conservation panels and advisory boards in Britain and abroad.