Virginia Anne McKenna is an English stage and screen actress, author and wildlife campaigner. She is known for her 1966 role as Joy Adamson in the true-life film Born Free. The film led to her and her husband, Bill Travers, becoming active supporters for wild animal rights as well as the protection of their natural habitat
Director of Administration at Zoological Society of London
Commences as Pathologist at Zoological Society of London in 1956
Famous Illusionist
The Sun Fire Office, later Sun Insurance, was founded in London in 1710 and developed into a leading international insurance business. In 1959, Sun Insurance merged with Alliance Assurance to form Sun Alliance
Charles Spooner was born in 1806. He graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1829 and was appointed as veterinary surgeon to ZSL - a post he held until 1833. His job title was 'medical attendant' and he was paid £60 per annum. For this he has to attend the gardens three times a week, more often if required, and prescribe and examine all animals and keep a record of this work.
The Zoological Club, connected with ZSL, was founded in 1866 by HW Bates, WH Flower, TH Huxley, PL Sclater, and others. The Club met to dine at various restaurants, including the Cafe Royal, before basing itself at London Zoo from 1914.
George Soper Cansdale was born in Brentwood, Essex and attended Brentwood School before studying for a degree in forestry at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He then joined the Colonial Service, and in 1934 was appointed as Forestry Officer for the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he started collecting animals for a friend who worked at Paignton Zoo. He used local children to help him collect specimens, and as a result discovered several new species. He began supplying animals for several zoos, including London Zoo.
In 1947 he was recruited by the Zoological Society of London as their Superintendent, a post which he held until 1953. During that period he began to broadcast for the BBC, on early wildlife programmes such as 'Heads, Tails and Feet', 'Looking at Animals' and 'All About Animals', the latter two of which won the Royal Television Society's silver medal in 1952. He also made regular appearances on Children's Hour on BBC radio. From the 1960s onwards he was a regular guest on Blue Peter.
In the 1960s Cansdale became Director of Marine Land in Morecambe, Chessington Zoo and Natureland in Skegness. He also developed, with his son, a method of obtaining clean seawater by filtering it through beach sand, and set up a company, SWF Filtration Ltd, which won the international IBM Award for Sustainable Development in 1990.
His books included 'Animals in West Africa' (1946), 'Animals and Man' (1952), 'George Cansdale's Zoo Book' (1953), 'Belinda and the Bushbaby' (written with his wife, 1953), 'Reptiles of West Africa' (1955), 'The Ladybird Book of British Wild Animals' (1958), 'West African Snakes' (1961), 'Behind the Scenes at a Zoo (1965) and 'Animals of Bible Lands' (1965).