R. D. Lawrence

Ronald Douglas Lawrence (September 12, 1921 – November 27, 2003) was a Canadian naturalist and wildlife author. He was an expert on the wildlife of Canada, on which he wrote more than thirty books, which have been published in 14 languages.

Biography Early life: Spain, Britain, and war Lawrence, one of five children, was born in 1921 on a British passenger ship in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of Spain. His mother was Spanish and his father, a journalist, was British. As a child in northern Spain, Lawrence became interested in nature. In his autobiography, he described his young self as a "happy loner engrossed in the natural world ... I cannot recall a single day when I was bored".

At 14, Lawrence lied about his age so that he could join the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and killed a man on his first night to save himself. His leg was full of shrapnel, but he refused to have it amputated; instead, doctors removed 37 of 39 pieces of shrapnel, and Lawrence determinedly exercised the limb until he no longer walked with a limp. Following Cambridge, he went back to Spain, where he worked as a journalist and novelist. He married a British woman and they had a son in 1953 after returning to Britain.

Awards 1967 and 1968 – Frank H. Kortright Award, for "excellence of writing in the field of conservation"