I was honoured to have the opportunity to interview award-winning actress and wildlife campaigner, Virginia McKenna OBE. Her work with animals is truly amazing and inspiring.

In 1984, Virginia Mckenna co-founded the Born Free Foundation, alongside her husband Bill Travers and her eldest son Will Travers. The Born Free Foundation is a leading international wildlife charity that campaigns for animal welfare and conservation. She recounted the heart-wrenching stories of the animals that inspired the start of the Born Free Foundation and a lifetime of devoted work with wildlife. ‘I suppose it’s quite an unusual start.' In 1964, actress Virginia McKenna and her husband, actor Bill Travers, were invited to star in the film adaptation of Joy Adamson’s best-selling book, Born Free- the incredible tale of Elsa, the orphaned lion cub, whom Joy and her husband, George raised and released into the wilderness of Kenya. ‘We didn’t know anything about lions and we didn’t know anything about anything very much. We were just a couple of actors.’ said McKenna. ‘Our great inspiration throughout the entire film and training period before was George Adamson, Joy’s husband. He was our lion man and he was the opposite of a trainer. He understood the character of each and every animal so profoundly that he could tell just from their body language exactly what they were thinking, feeling.’ When the filming of Born Free came to an end, Virginia and Bill were shocked and sickened to learn that the animals, which they had been working alongside, had been promised to zoos and safari parks. ‘We put people in prison to punish them. Animals haven’t done anything wrong and we’re locking them up. Some of the places that I have been to are so awful that you wouldn’t even put your worst enemy in there.' Fortunately, they were able to prevent the captivity of three of the five lions, involved in the making of Born Free. The lions, Boy, Girl and Ugas, were given to conservationist and friend of Virginia and Bill, George Adamson and he started a simple park for them, in Meru. ‘Leaping forward to the present time, we are doing a lion survey in that park at the moment and there’s a good chance that some of the animals living in the park now are descendants of Boy and Girl and Ugas.’ Born Free was not only a huge success at the box office, with Virginia receiving a nomination for a Golden Globe, but a life-changing experience her and her husband, inspiring them to make a number of wildlife films and documentaries together, including An Elephant Called Slowly.

‘It was actually the death of an elephant at London Zoo that began our work. This elephant, whose name was Pole Pole, had been captured, when she was two, from the wild. She was given by the government of Kenya, of that day, as a gift to London Zoo.' Years after the making of An Elephant Called Slowly, Virginia and Bill visited London Zoo, as a friend had raised concerns about the welfare of Pole Pole. Virginia recalled her heartbreaking encounter with the elephant. ‘We saw this absolutely frantically frightened little creature. She was all on her own at this horrible, horrible compound at London Zoo. Absolutely bleak. Not a bush. Nothing. We called her and she came to us and she put her trunk out to us. She remembered us, after all those years. It was absolutely awful. I can’t tell you how upsetting it was. I’m sure you can imagine.’ Virginia and Bill launched a campaign for Pole Pole’s release, however unfortunately the elephant died, in 1983. The devastating death of Pole Pole sparked the beginning of the charity Zoo Check, which would later become Born Free. They then devoted their lives to conservation and animal protection, long before politicians and pop stars jumped on the bandwagon.

Virginia believes that animal welfare has changed in a positive way since the start of the Born Free Foundation, however there is still a long way to go. ‘I think we have seemed to advanced in lots of ways, but in some we seem to be stuck in a sort of time warp and I think it’s the young people who are going to change this. I absolutely know it is.’ She sees the worth of educating young people on the importance of conserving and protecting wildlife. Virginia herself realised her love for animals in her early childhood. ‘My father very much liked wild animals and had very many animals that I would totally disapprove of having now of course. We had a snake called George that I used to be allowed to take for a slither around the garden and we had two bush babies and a parrot and four budgies. I had a duty every so often to clean the budgie cage and one day it was summer and I opened the cage and the budgies managed to fly out the window. I was so happy because they were free but I got in such trouble!’

Over the years, the Born Free Foundation has rescued a great many animals. In October 2017, lion cub King was discovered in an apartment in Paris, France, being kept illegally in outrageous conditions. Last July, King was given a new home at Born Free’s big cat sanctuary at Shamwari Reserve, South Africa. King won the Animal Rescue Award at the Daily Mirror Animal Hero Awards. The rescue was Virgina’s highlight of 2018. ‘He has transformed. He’s just king of the jungle there. It’s heavenly when you see an animal fulfilled. When we rescue an animal I feel overjoyed. Overjoyed because it tells so many stories through one animal. It tells people the story of loneliness and pain in this life that they’ve come from and then it tells the story of how some people want to stop that and care about them enough to raise funds. When we do a rescue, the reaction from the public is amazing because it’s positive. We live in a world where there are so many negative, difficult things to face and so when something really happy happens people just want to be a part of it.' Virginia talked about Born Free’s goals for 2019 and the future. ‘We want to be able to save more individual animals living in horrible conditions. We want to protect land, wild land, so that wildlife can live in its own territory, where it deserves to live and we want to end ivory poaching.’

As well as being a tireless animal welfare and conservation campaigner, Virginia McKenna is a very successful actress, winning a BAFTA for Best British Actress for A Town Like Alice, 1956. The acting role that meant the most to Mckenna was Violette Szabo in Carve Her Name With Pride, 1958. Carve Her Name With Pride is a war drama based on the true story of Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo, who was captured and executed, while serving in Nazi-occupied France. ‘Her story lives on today because I met a woman many years ago who lives in the house that Violette used to stay in when she was training to be a spy. This lady was so captivated by the story of Violette that every year she holds a special day and I go every year. Violette’s daughter, Tanya, has become a friend. The story of Violette lives forever through Tanya.’ The acting role that Virginia enjoyed the most was her part in The Smallest Show On Earth, in which she acted alongside her husband Bill Travers and Peter Sellers. ‘It was just such fun. We were permanently laughing as we were making it!'

Virginia received an OBE for her outstanding contributions to the arts and for her incredible work for animal conservation and welfare, with the Born Free Foundation. ‘It’s not why you do it to get prizes but of course I was most honoured and flattered. I was so nervous much more nervous than being on a first night actually. I was absolutely amazed to be honest with you. It’s really lovely to have been able to live a life that you really wanted to live and I feel very privileged.'

If you would like to find out more about the Born Free Foundation and the amazing work that they do for animal conservation and welfare, please visit their website https://www.bornfree.org.uk/