René de Naurois

Abbé René de Naurois (24 November 1906 – 12 January 2006) was a French Catholic priest, chaplain, and ornithologist.

During the Second World War Naurois assisted the French Resistance, helped organise the escape of Jews from occupied France to Switzerland and Spain.

He himself escaped from Vichy via Barcelona, Gibraltar arriving at Liverpool, and was one of the 177 Kieffer Commandos who took part in the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944.

His doctoral thesis, which he defended in 1969 at the age of 63, was titled "Populations and breeding cycles of birds of the western coast of Africa from Cape Barbas, Spanish Sahara to the frontier of the Republic of Guinea".

As well as numerous papers in the scientific literature, books authored or coauthored by Naurois include:

The abbé de Naurois, chaplain among the Kieffer Commandos in 1944.
Eggs of Cisticola anonymus collected by René de Naurois - MHNT