Roger Charlier
Roger Henrí Charlier (10 November 1921 – 16 September 2018) was a Belgian resistance fighter, a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, and an oceanographer. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium, and died in Etterbeek, Belgium.
He studied in Germany and France, earning a PhD and advanced degrees at German and French universities. In the early 1940s he worked as a secondary school teacher. During World War II, he served in the Belgian armed forces in 1945, was briefly imprisoned by the Germans, and later commanded a unit in Limburg.
After the war, Charlier worked for Belgium’s Ministry of Justice and joined the Belgian and Luxembourg delegations at the Nuremberg trials, where he helped prosecute war crimes and questioned figures such as Eggert Reeder and Alexander von Falkenhausen. He also wrote for newspapers, including as an editor at De Volksgazet in 1949. He then became deputy director of UNRRA, running a refugee camp in Ansbach near Nuremberg.
Charlier married American army nurse Captain Marie Helen Glennon. Their story inspired the Hollywood film I Was a Male War Bride, in which Cary Grant played Charlier. The couple had no children, and Glennon died after ten years of marriage. Charlier later married Patricia Mary Simonet and had two children.
A large part of his career was in oceanography and earth sciences. In 1958 he conducted ocean-energy research aboard Jacques Cousteau’s ship Calypso. He spoke early about global warming and the need for sustainable energy and fair use of marine resources. He taught at several universities in the United States and Europe, including Finch College, Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Bordeaux. He retired in 1989 but continued writing.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:00 (CET).