The name of the naturalist Ronald Lockley is inextricably linked with Skokholm. Lockley, who had been fascinated by islands from his earliest youth, took the lease of Skokholm in 1927, and established Britain's first bird observatory on the island in 1933.

During his first winter on the island, when Lockley was attempting to make the farmhouse fit to live in, he was almost forced to give up, until the schooner Alice Williams, with a cargo of coal was wrecked in what is now known as Wreck Cove, in the shadow of Spy Rock. Lockley rapidly arranged to buy the salvage rights for the princely sum of £5, and recruited a team of helpers to assist him in the salvage operation. The coal, timber and other items he rescued from the wreck enabled Lockley to survive the winter and complete the renovation of the cottage. To this day, many relics of the Alice Williams are to be seen on Skokholm. including the ship's bell which still summons visitors at mealtimes.

In addition to founding the bird observatory, and erecting Britain's first Heligoland traps, Lockley carried out much pioneering research work on the island's seabirds, establishing for the first time the incubation and fledging periods of Puffins, Manx Shearwaters and Storm Petrels, and doing many experiments on the navigational powers of shearwaters.

This work alone would merit a lasting place in the annals of British ornithology, but it is perhaps for his books about his life on the island, monographs on seabirds and other writings that Lockley is best known today. His writings consist of over 50 books and innumerable articles for a wide variety of journals, magazines and periodicals.

On leaving Skokholm during the Second World War, Lockley moved to the Pembrokeshire mainland where he farmed, spent some time living in the Channel Islands and, back in Pembrokeshire, founded the Orielton Field Centre before moving to New Zealand, where he still lives. All these phases of his life are represented in his writings. the book which resulted from his research on rabbits at Orielton, The Private Life of the Rabbit, provided much of the natural history background for Richard Adams' Watership Down.