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" ,The late George and Joy Adamson are arnon~ the20th century's most famous champions of wildlife., .Immortalised in 'the book and him 80m Free, theirrelationship with Elsathe lioness in the 19505 and'60s is one of th~ best-knovvnanimal stories evertold. To mark the 20th·anniversary of George's death,Lizzie Williams, takes a look at the life and work ofthis legendary couple.

Inthe eyes of the world, the Ide in Kenya ofGeorge and Joy Adamson was" one ofromantic safaris and tireless ~ommitm nt.Joy, with her blonde curls and easy laugh,was a colonial queen; George, his white

beard and suntanned chest emerging above khakishorts, was a legend of the bush. ,

George was born in India in 1906 and movedto Kenya as a young adult. At first he worked onfarms in the Rift Valley, but found the experience'limiting and turned his hand to hunting. One·day, coming across a lion resting on a rock, hewas struck by the animal's beauty and vowednever to kill again. He described ttle momentlnhis diary, an extract from which was read at hismemorial service in 1989 by Bill Travers, theactor who played the role of George in Born Free.'She was sculpted by the setting sun, as thoughshe were part of the granite on which she lay. Iwondered how many lions had lain on the self-same rock during countless centuries while thehuman race was still in its cradle.'

The experience spurred George to become agame warden. He accepted a job with Kenya'sgame department (now the Ke9ya WildlifeService) and was posted to the country's remoteorthern Frontier, on the border with Somalia.

Here, he used his rifles to manage the animals,and arrested 25 poachers in the firstjfew months.

Joy was born Friederike Gessner in 1910 inwhat was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire.(later to become part of Austria). In 1935 shemarried Victor van Klarwill, a JeWish business-man, who decided that the couple 'should moveto Kenya to escape the rising azi movement inEurope. He sent his young wife ahead to Africa.Unfortunately for Van Klarwill, while on boardthe boat between Cairo and Mombasa, Friederikemet and fell in love with botanist Peter Bally.When her husband arrived in Kenya, sheannounced her intention to divorce him, and shemarried Bally in 1938. It was he who renamedher Joy for the happiness she had brought intohis life.

Joy accompanied her new husband on botan-ical expeditions throughout East Africa and,being an accomplished painter, she began to

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document the flower specimens on paper. (Latershe illustrated: books and catalogues for museums.)She was physically strong and soon learned theways of the bush, travelling at Bally's side fromthe top of Kilimanjaro to the seldom-exploredequatorial rainforests of the Congo Basin. On onesuch expedition to Kenya's Northern Frontier, theBallys met George Adamson. His reputation as arecluse and great adventurer appealed to Joy, andshe declared her love for him after only a week onsafari. After she divorced Bally, her third and finalmarriage was to George in 1943.

During their early years ogether, Joy was com-missione"d to paint a series of images depictingtile tribes of Ke,nya. The 560 paintings took sev-eral years to complete and remain a lasting trib-ute to the disappearing tribal traditions of EastAfrica (some still hang [n the Kenya NationalMuseum and in the State House in Nairobi). WhileGeorge stayed in the bush and wrote to his wifeevery Sunday, Joy travelled all over Kenya to com-plete her collection of paintings, for which shereceived £20 000. However, now successful in herown right, she became increasingly promiscuous.Her frequent affairs were I gendary amongst thetight-knit community a colonial Kenya. ~

OPPOSITE Joyand GeorgeAdamson. Ini-tially, the couplefell deeply inlove; later, Joywas to remark,'I love Elsa morethan any man.'

BELOW Afterbeing releasedinto the wild, Elsabore three cubs:Jespah (below),Gopa and LittleElsa. After theirmother's death,the young lionswere transferredto SerengetiNational Park inTanzania.

WWW.AFRICAGEOGRAPHIC.COM 31

ABOVE Joy andElsa.

OPPOSITEGeorge andone of hischarges in theKora GameReserve, whichwas upgradedto a nationalpark just threedays beforehis death.

Elsa to chase. When shecould fend for herself, shewas released into the bushand the Adamsons knew forcertain that they had beensuccessful when they leftElsa in the wild for a weekand returned to find thatshe had killed a waterbuck.This groundbreaking rehab-ilitation was completedwhen Elsa mated with a wildmale and bore three cubs,

which she introduced to Joy.Elsa's story inspired Joy to write a book, which

she took to London in the hope of finding a pub-lisher. Born Free became an instant success and soldover five million copies in 12 languages. Her pub-lisher Billy Collins came to Kenya to meet Elsa,where he is said to have had an affair with the then50-year-old Joy. In January 1961, while Joy wasaway on business with Billy, Elsa became ill withtick-bite fever and died with her feverish head rest-ing in George's lap. Grief-stricken, Joy buried thelioness beside the Tana River in Kenya's Meru GameReserve (now a national park). Her death wasreported throughout the world and caused a reac-tion of condolence never before seen for an animal.

While George retired to the solitude of thebush, Joy returned to London a famous woman.Now working on Living Free and Forever Free, she

George could have divorcedher at any time for her infi-delities and neglect, but hewas devoted to his wife,despite the fact that between1948 and 1953 she spentover eight months a yearaway from him.

ife for the Adamsonschanged when, ona safari in 1955,George was forced

to shoot a dangerous man-eating lioness, only todiscover the eat's three newborn cubs in a cleft ofrock. He took them home to Joy and when theyopened their eyes a few days later, they immedi-ately imprinted on her as their mother. For thefirst few months, she raised all three, but theygrew big and boisterous and two were sent to azoo in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The one thatremained was named Elsa, and Joy doted on herwith all the affection she had never been able togive a child. The lioness went everywhere withthe Adamsons and Joy adored her, once tellingDavid Attenborough, 'You see, I love Elsa morethan any man.'

Despite their affection for the lioness, Joy andGeorge both agreed she must be set free. Georgetaught her to hunt and kill, which involveddragging a carcass behind his Land Rover for

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32 AFRICA EOGRAPHIC· AUGUST 2009

embarked on a glamorous but exhausting worldtour, promoting both her books and her newwildlife charity, The Elsa Conservation Trust. Herappearances were dramatic and emotional as sheasked for donations to the trust and she alwayscried when talking about Elsa's death. But herefforts were successful - she raised £25000 for thecharity on her first tour, and the money was usedto establish a number of wildlife conservationprojects in Kenya. No royalties from the bookswere given to George, despite his obvious involve-ment in Elsa's life story.

In 1964 Columbia Pictures started filmingBorn Free and George washired as the technical adviseron lion handling. More than20 lions were needed tocover Elsa's life. Georgeselected each one, all fromzoos and circuses, and wasable to make them do whatwas needed in front of thecameras. Real-life coupleVirginia McKenna and Bill Travers, who playedthe parts of Joy and George and subsequentlybecame great friends of the pair, refused to usedoubles in their scenes with the lions. (The crew,however, worked from within cages.)

After the film was completed, Joy returned toEurope for the royal premiere and glittered inthe presence of Queen Elizabeth II, while Georgeattended the Nairobi premiere alone. The filmwas an instant success and grossed US$4-millionin its opening week. After seeing it, animalbehaviourist Desmond Morris commented, 'Elsahas done something else. She has made peoplestart to question the morality of keeping animalsin captivity.'

eorge was able to keep three of thelions from the film and Joy agreed tofinance their rehabilitation at Meru.She had been given a cheetah cub to

set free and, as the two cats cannot share thesame territory, the couple set up separate camps24 kilo metres apart. They lived independentlyfor more than four years. Joy raised her cheetah,Pippa, and released her into the wild where shebore three cubs. Like Elsa, she kept her affectionfor Joy, who studied her behaviour and notedher observations in her book, The Spotted Sphinx,contributing greatly to our understanding ofcheetahs.

Bill Travers returned to Kenya to make a docu-mentary on the Adamsons, but Joy became jeal-ous of the amount of coverage that George wasgetting, and withdrew. Travers apologised, butshe never spoke to him or Virginia McKennaagain. The film The Lions are Free was seen by anaudience of 35 million and, for the first time, theroyalties went to George. His subsequent autobio-graphy, aptly entitled My Pride and Joy, was also asuccess.

In 1969 Joy moved to Elsamere, her new houseon Kenya's Lake Naivasha, which today is a con-servation centre. By then George had a pride of15 rehabilitated lions that were faring well forthemselves, and in 1970 he moved to the isolatedwilderness of Kora Game Reserve (now Kora

ational Park) in north-east Kenya. Here, he con-tinued the rehabilitation of captive or orphanedbig cats for eventual reintroduction into the wild.He released a lion named Boy (which had starredin Born Free) and another young cub, named Chris-tian, that had been found by Travers in a furnitureshop in London's Chelsea. When the cub was set

free, George informed its for-mer owners, who travelled toKenya to visit it. Althoughhe warned them that thelion would probably notremember them, it greetedthem with warmth, nuzzlingtheir faces. Their touchingreunion was captured by ~

W W.AFRICAGEOGRAPHIC.COM 33

PHOTOGRAPHERS INTERNATIONAL

working for WILDLIFEA number of organisations around the world continue the goodwork started by the Adamsons.

The Born Free Foundation www.bornfree.org.uk was inspiredby actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, who travelled toKenya to star in the classic film Born Free, based on Joy's best-selling book. This dynamic international wildlife charity is devotedto compassionate conservation and animal welfare, and takesaction worldwide to protect threatened species and stop thesuffering of individual animals.

The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust www.george-adamson.org was formed in England in 1979 to raise funds forthe work being done in Kora National Park in northern Kenya byGeorge and his assistant Tony Fitzjohn. With the financial supportof individuals, corporate sponsors and institutions, the Trust hasundertaken substantial projects in Kora and at Mkomazi GameReserve in Tanzania, with the latter employing over 40 Tanzanianpersonnel, making it one of the more important wildlife projectsin Africa today.

In 1989, The Elsa Conservation Trust opened the ElsamereField Study Centre in Joy's previous home in Naivasha, Kenya, toenable the children of East Africa to learn to treasure their environ-ment. Thousands of children have visited the centre. Elsamerealso offers holiday accommodation. For more information, go towww.e/satrust.orgor www.e/samere.com

34 AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC' AUGUST 2009

Travers for the documentary entitled The Lion fromWorld's End. (Some 30 years on, this scene has foundnew life on YouTube, attracting millions of hits.

umerous versions are available, but the mostauthentic - complete with narration by VirginiaMcKenna - can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvCjyWp3rEk). Over the next seven yearsGeorge released a further 17 lions, and became knownas Baba ya simba, KiSwahili for 'father of lions'.

At Elsamere, Joy completed her autobiography TheSearching Spirit, and in 1977 was awarded the AustrianCross of Honour for Science and Art. As The ElsaConservation Trust flourished, contributing to wild-life projects throughout the world, her celebrity statusgrew. But she resented George's obvious contentmentat Kora, his activeness, his involvement with the lionsand his success with supporters such as actress AliMcGraw. Her mood was revived when she was given aleopard cub, Penny, which she raised and released ather camp at Shaba Game Reserve. Leopards are soli-tary creatures and difficult to track, but Joy againshared her observations in her book Queen of Shaba.

In 1979 she invited George to celebrate Christmasat her camp. At the last minute, problems with hisaeroplane forced him to stay away. He would neversee her again. On 3 January 1980, Joy Adamson wasfound in a pool of blood after being stabbed by anex-employee she had sacked. George buried hiswife's ashes beneath the graves of Elsa and Pippa atMeru. He was appalled by the way she had died,and was heard to comment, 'Far better it had beena lion.'

Nine years later, on Sunday 20 August, while hav-ing his usual pre-lunch gin, George went to investi-gate a commotion in the bush and discovered afemale tourist being ambushed by Somalian poach-ers. Rushing to her aid, he and two employees wereshot and killed in a hail of bullets. He was 81.

His funeral at Kora was attended by hundreds ofpeople, including Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna,and he was buried alongside Boy, his favourite lion.A bottle of gin was placed beneath his coffin, andafter the funeral a wreath was dragged away by alion - evidence that his pride had visited his grave.

The Adamsons' work has been invaluable for thefuture of Africa's big cats. They proved that rehabili-tation is possible and, through their relationshipswith animals, that emotion is one of the essentialprerequisites of survival. This quality may have beenmissing from thei married life but, as their mutua.friend Merral Dalton noted, 'They were like oil andwater - he so quiet and gentle, she so energetic andtemperamental. Between them, perhaps, the tie wasa deep true love for and affinity with nature and allthat is wild.' •

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Elsa'sKopje remains one of the most elegantlodgesin Africa, and boasts a spectacularsetting - overlooking the vast Kenyan plainsthat stretch as far as the eye can see. Thisproperty is also the best upmarket location inKenyato view black and white rhinos in theirnatural habitat, with a 44-square-kilometrerhinosanctuary nearby. Meru is also home toavariety of exciting wildlife species such as lion,leopard,elephant and buffalo (completing theBigFive),as well as African wild dogs, Grevy's

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zebras, cheetahs, giraffes, Somali ostriches,and more than 350 other bird species.

The lodge itself is almost invisible to theeye as you approach its location on MughwangoHill. Blending into the rocky crags of the kopje(small hill), it has been creatively built usingnatural local materials and taking advantageof the wide open spaces and views.

Activities here include day and night gamedrives in spacious 4x4 safari vehicles, guidedbush walks, bush meals, sundowners, line

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game-viewing as well as relaxing, reading and soaking up the truly.Id environs ottered by Shaba - offer breathtaking views of the surrounding• Is. Each tent is uniquely decorated with 'iibrant Borana and somali fabrics

and handmade glass, creating a sophisticated and stylish camp. In theeasterncorner oi the Samburu ecosystem, Shaba is a secluded idyll; an

aridlandscape dotted with lush springs and rocky rwer gorges.

fishing, massages and swimming in a largeinfinity pool. For families, Elsa's Kopje alsooffers the unique open-fronted Private House- complete with two en-suite bedrooms, alarge seating/dining area, and its own gardenand swimming pool.

Contact informationinfo@chelipeacock.co.kewwwelsaskopje.com

With activities such as day andnight game dri'ies in spacious 4x4 safari vehicles,guided bush walks, bush meals, sundowners, massages, andsw\mm\ng \n a beaut\ful pool, Joy's Camp is the perfect cho\ce ford\scerning guests \nterested in a glimpse ot Kenyan history, as wellas those lool<.\ng tor an authenbc w\ldl\te experience comb\ned w\ththe comfort of a luxury tented camp. Joy's Camp, I'ore'ier I'ree\

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zebras, cheetahs, giraffes, Somali ostriches,and more than 350 other bird species.

The lodge itself is almost invisible to theeye as you approach its location on MughwangoHill. Blending into the rocky crags of the kopje(small hill), it has been creatively built usingnatural local materials and taking advantageof the wide open spaces and views.

Activities here include day and night gamedrives in spacious 4x4 safari vehicles, guidedbush walks, bush meals, sundowners, line

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