Louis Napoleon Le Roux
Louis Napoléon Le Roux (1890-1944) was a Breton nationalist. He is also known as Loeiz-Napoleon Ar Rouz in the Breton language. In 1911 he was one of the founders of the Breton Nationalist Party with Camille Le Mercier d'Erm. He typically signed himself Louis N. Le Roux, perhaps in order to avoid using the name 'Louis Napoléon'.
He contributed to the bulletin Brug (heather) published by Émile Masson from Pontivy, between 1913 and 1914, which promoted socialist and radical ideas to the peasantry of Lower Brittany. Having exiled himself to Switzerland to avoid fighting for France in World War I, he left for Ireland, where he established good relations with nationalist leaders.
Le Roux contributed to the journal La Bretagne libertaire in 1921. In 1922, he translated into French the works of Ramsay MacDonald. He also wrote one of the earliest biographies of Patrick Pearse. Eventually, and perhaps surprisingly, he became private secretary to the Conservative politician Harold Macmillan, before being killed during the London Blitz of World War II.
Publications
- Pour le séparatisme la question bretonne essai précédé du manifeste (Rennes: Editions du Parti Nationaliste Breton, 1911)
- La Langue des Relations Interceltiques
- L'Irlande militante: la vie de Patrick Pearse, avec une introduction historique et 15 photographies (Rennes: Imprimerie Commerciale de Bretagne, 1932)