John Rendall

Trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust

Patron of LionAid

“We all have a lot to thank Christian for”

“Born Wild” 2010

Tony Fitzjohn, George Adamson’s Assistant and Field Director of The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust.

In 1969 when Harrods department store in Knightsbridge sold Marcus, a 3 month old lion cub, to be re-named Christian,  it was totally legal. The Zoo department on the 2^nd floor had been selling exotic animals for many years and was one of the store’s must -visit attractions.

And so it was that I, and fellow Australian University friend Ace Bourke, gravitated to the famous store (and the Zoo), having heard about the Italian artist Pietro Annigoni requesting a camel for our friend and his beautiful Australian muse Barrie Bryan, and Ronald Reagan enquiring about an elephant for his election campaign.

We did not know what to expect but the excitement of seeing 2 lion cubs exceeded all our expectations. They were entrancing.

Having made the instant decision to buy them we faced tough questioning from (the Zoo buyer) Roy Hazel and his assistant Sandy Lloyd. It was Sandy who looked after the lions  and ensured they were not stressed by too much exposure to the public. Harrods have been criticised for trading in exotic animals but we came to appreciate how caring the staff were.

After many visits after hours (Harrods closed at 5.30 in those days) we realised that we could only cope with one cub… together they were too much of a handful.

And so Christian came to live in Sophistocat pine furniture shop in the World’s End on the King’s Road  Chelsea where we worked, and  where he soon became popular with local residents.

Swinging London was the place to be, and a lion living in Chelsea became part of that exuberance and creativity.

We were fortunately introduced to Fleet Street photographer, Derek Cattani, who was to become Christian’s official photographer and whose photos were to record Christian’s life in London, and later in Africa. Derek’s photographs are integral to our book, “Christian the Lion. An Illustrated Legacy”  published by Bradt. 2018.

Ace and I embraced this exciting and creative world but Christian rose above it., unimpressed by the fuss people made over him. He was an exceptional animal and an exceptional lion….. later confirmed by George Adamson. Christian did not enjoy outings to strange surroundings and was only relaxed and content with-in Sophistocat or on his exercise expeditions to the nearby Moravian Close.

We always knew that we could only be Christian’s temporary guardians and as he grew from a cuddly 35 lb cub into a boisterous 175 lb one year old, we had to accept that it was time  for him to leave  Sophistocat and London.

But where was he to go?

Living with Christian made me increasingly aware of Christian’s needs and how his unnatural life in London, though safe and comfortable, was depriving him of  life with other lions, a unique life-style in the big cat world. Lions being the only Big Cats to live in a family pride.

A chance introduction from Bill Travers and his wife Virginia McKenna  to George Adamson, husband of Joy who had written ‘Born Free’ about the rehabilitation of their lioness Elsa, posed an intriguing solution.

Rather than going to a safari park like Longleat could Christian be rehabilitated in Africa and survive in the wild, after his pampered life in London?

No lion cub in the wild would have had 4 meals a day and Christian  had never  faced daily danger from hyenas, leopards or other lions.

But we had every confidence in Christian. He was healthy and habituated to humans, as I was to learn, an important factor in lion rehabilitation. By comparison, rehabilitating Leopards is easy….you just open the compound or cage and let them go. They need no training to kill and survive.

Lions need to learn; from their parents, or with help from humans or, with a combination of both. This was the option George Adamson offered for Christian so we decided to accept. George was prepared to try and rehabilitate Christian in Kenya, despite being aware that Christian was a 5^th generation zoo-bred lion and he warned us that it had never been done before and that Christian may not survive.

We had to take that chance.

We flew with Christian, and Derek to take photographs, to Kenya and were met by George at Nairobi airport. Because we had flown from an English winter Christian had a thick coat and as Ace, Derek and I were sporting lengthy Kings Road locks, George’s first comment was; “You’re a hairy lot”!

George’s calm approaches to Christian confirmed our hopes that we had made the right decision. Spending time with George was an incredible privilege, watching him with Christian and the mature lion Boy, and foundling cub Katania( the core of the new pride George was creating) and listening to his descriptions of wildlife, and the world in which Christian was now living was a crash course in animal behaviour. Also fascinating to hear his beliefs about the relationships between wild life and humans, the threats to wildlife, and his increasing concerns about conservation.

After two exhilarating two weeks at Kora Game Reserve near Meru in Northern Kenya, which George had leased, it was time to pass over our guardianship of Christian to George and we returned to the UK. It was an emotional farewell to say goodbye to Christian of course, but knowing that he was in the care of ‘Bwana Simba’,( The Lion Man),the man who knew more about rehabilitating lions than anyone else in the world was reassuring..

Over the next year George was an excellent correspondent so we were kept abreast of Christian’s adventures and at the end of that year George invited us back to see `Christian.

The exhilarating reunion with Christian was filmed by the brilliant wildlife photographer Simon Trevor and the emotional footage has been viewed by over 100 million people on YouTube.

George led Christian over the bluff of a hill, while we waited at the bottom, wondering if Christian would remember us. Christian walked slowly down the hill, staring intensely. Until George told us …. “Call him”. That’s when Christian started to run, grunting in excitement. It was everything we could have hoped for, with the unnerving bonus of his two lionesses greeting us as well.

This reunion has resonated around the world, with the clear message that lions have wonderful memories and can straddle two worlds. It was Richard Attenborough who first described George and Joy’s lioness Elsa, as “ a lioness of two worlds”. Christian had repeated this phenomena.

Christian disappeared into the wild 2 years later, never to be seen again but often heard by George. His territorial roaring and noisy matings were heard by George and his assistant Tony Fitzjohn who for the next 18 years helped George rehabilitate another 23 lions at Kora, by then upgraded to National Park status.

When George was murdered  by Somali poachers in 1989 Tony founded the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust and tackled the rehabilitation of the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania. Kenya was no longer safe.

The core of the Trust were Tony’s fellow pupils from Mill Hill `School in North London and a group of George’s friends. I am delighted to be a Trustee and help raise funds for the Trust.

Christian has been integral to this fund-raising. The reunion clip is an excellent teaching tool and I, with Derek, use it to introduce our talks on conservation. We have spoken at numerous schools, fund raisers, Clubs and the Royal Geographical Society.

When Christian went to Kenya there were 400,000 lions in the wild, 30,000 in Kenya. Today there are less than 10,000 in the wild and less than 3,000 in Kenya. Even these numbers may be optimistic.

Christian introduced me to Africa and made me aware of the ever increasing threats to wildlife.

An inspiring legacy.

“Christian had blazed a trail across the Tana (river) to the great hunting ground to the north….  It would be premature and pessimistic to think of the cheerful, mischievous and courageous young lion from London as dust in that rich earth concealed a dust that England bore…..I began to think of Kora… as Christian’s monument”

George Adamson, “My Pride and Joy” 1987.