Gilbert Renault

Gilbert Renault (August 6, 1904 – July 29, 1984) was known during the French Resistance under the name Colonel Rémy. He is one of the most famous secret agents of occupied France during World War II , and was known under various pseudonyms such as Raymond, Jean-Luc, Morin, Watteau, Roulier, Beauce and Rémy.

Gilbert Renault was born in Vannes, France, the oldest child of a Catholic family of nine children. His father was a professor of Philosophy and English, and later the inspector general of an insurance company. He went to the Collège St-François-Xavier in Vannes, and after his studies he went to the Rennes faculty.

A sympathizer of French Action in the Catholic and Nationalist line, he began his career at the Bank of France in 1924. In 1936, he began cinematic production and finances, and made J'accuse, a new version of the Abel Gance film. It was a resounding failure, but the many connections Renault made during this period were very useful during the resistance.

With armistice declared of June 18, 1940, he refused to accept Marshal Philippe Pétain and went to London with one of his brothers, on board a trawler which departed from Lorient. He was one of the first men to adhere to the calls of General Charles de Gaulle, and was entrusted by Colonel Passy, then captain and chief of the BCRA, to create an information network in France.

In August of that year he met with Louis de La Bardonnie, and together they created the Notre-Dame Brotherhood, which would become NDT-Castille in 1944. Initially centered on the Atlantic coast, it ended up covering much of occupied France and Belgium. This network was one of the most important in the occupied zone, and its information allowed many military successes, as the attack on Bruneval and on Saint-Nazaire.

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