Christian the Lion
As a book with new photographs marks 50 years since the lion from Harrods returned to the wild, Christian’s former owner, John, shares his personal memories
It’s the story that tugged on the heartstrings of everyone who heard it and now, 50 years on, the tale of Christian the Lion is capturing the imagination of the next generation as a new book is released for the anniversary, complete with charming, never-beforeseen photographs.
It was the late Sixties and in the bohemian borough of Chelsea, Australians John Rendall and Anthony ‘Ace’ Bourke had overheard an amazing story about a few lion cubs that had just joined the zoo at Harrods department store on Brompton Road.
Still seven years away from legislation that would ban the sale of exotic animals in England, wild pets were all the rage among the hip and famous, from Ronald Reagan’s elephant to Noël Coward’s alligator. For the boys, the appeal of taking a lion home for tea was too fascinating not to consider, so heading down to the animal section of Harrods, located between the music and carpet departments, John and Ace caught their first glance of Christian, the stoic, strong lion who sat silently in his cage.
“Christian just looked at you impassively like you didn’t exist and never hissed or snarled like his sister, who was also with him. From that moment we could see he was a powerful and highly intelligent animal.”
For 250 guineas (£3,000 in today’s money) Christian was theirs and they took him to the pine furniture store where John worked on the trendy King’s Road.
Given the run of the lower floor of the shop, Christian fitted in like any pet
cat would with his own litter tray, his favourite toys and a pampered diet.
As word spread about the lion living down the road, Christian began getting visitors from the celebrity world from Diana Rigg to Mia Farrow, who visited Christian while heavily pregnant (Mia’s husband, the conductor Andre Previn, however, chose to watch Christian nervously from outside the shop).
But one of Christian’s all-time favourite famous friends was actress Unity Bevis-Jones who, having once owned a lioness in Rome, knew just how to deal with Christian and soon became his beloved playmate.
“Unity, because she was so little and slight, had learned how to control a lion just by her voice and she taught us how to do that too. If Christian ever got a bit rough with her, she just stood absolutely still and ignored him. This was the worst thing you could ever do to him as lions are so gregarious and crave the affection of others.”
Over time Unity, along with John and Ace and the Fleet Street photographer Derek Cattani, who took the gorgeous photos shown here, became a precious part of Christian’s human pride.
“At first I’d been surprised by the affection and friendship Christian showed towards us but then as I learned more about lions I discovered this is just part of their nature, they’re very tactile,” says John. “As the only big cat to live in a pride, you see lions out in the wild and they live practically on top of one another, with a paw or a tail constantly on their mate.
“As well as this affection, we found Christian was a great judge of character, as the people he liked were good people but those he didn’t we later found were a bit odd. He was such an intelligent animal with a great sense of humour, always interested in everything around him.”
But Christian had a stubborn streak too and if he didn’t want to do something, he’d simply sit down and refuse to do it. This meant many of his walks on a lead down the King’s Road ended with John and Ace having to pick up and heave this enormous creature back home. There was also the time he got bored on Blue Peter with a frazzled Valerie Singleton battling to keep him from sauntering off set.
After one happy year with John and Ace though, the time came when Christian had become too big for King’s Road and so all three made the trip to Africa, where Christian was to be released back into the wild with the help of George Adamson, the conservationist and author whose book inspired the Born Free film.
Here Christian was introduced to other lions, including a huge full-sized beast called Boy who quickly made it clear to the immature Christian that he was the boss.
“At that point Christian thought he was unique in the world, having got used to all these two-legged people running around making a fuss of him and cuddling him and then suddenly
‘We found Christian was a great judge of character, as the people he liked were good people but those he didn’t were a bit odd’
he meets this lion five times bigger than him that wants to charge at him. Luckily, though, even though he was a fifth-generation domesticated lion, Christian’s wild instincts kicked in and he simply rolled on his belly whenever Boy came near which was the right etiquette to do before an older lion.”
After a few days all together in Africa, John and Ace said a sad goodbye to the lion cub that had become their best friend.
However, that wasn’t the end as John and Ace went back to Kenya a year later to see how their pride and joy was doing. Despite months of learning to be wild and to avoid all humans, as soon as George led Christian and his two lioness pals, Mona and Lisa, towards the camp where John and Ace were waiting, something truly magical happened. “We really didn’t doubt that Christian would remember us.
And as soon as he came over the brow of the hill with George, he walked towards us with curiosity. He wasn’t stalking and his body language was good. Then about halfway down the hill George suggested we call him and as soon as we did that, he started to run towards us to jump into our arms.
“In the video of that moment, which has since become a YouTube sensation, you can see that we brace ourselves as he runs, not out of fear but because a 250lb lion running at 25 mph towards us, we thought he was going to knock us over with excitement. The moment he jumped onto us was fantastic. Christian was making wonderful noises and George was standing there beaming with pride. Most interesting
‘George suggested we call him and as soon as we did, he started to run towards us to jump into our arms’
of all, though, was that the lioness with Christian rubbed her head with me too. She was virtually wild, not habituated to humans and here she was rubbing heads with me. I must have been a complete idiot not to be scared but it was amazing that Christian had somehow communicated with her to say, ‘it’s OK, this is part of my other pride’.”
John and Ace visited Africa many more times, but only saw Christian once more in 1972 by which time he was a huge, strapping, fully-grown lion, still loving and friendly but different from the playful cub they’d bought or the happy teenager who had jumped on them in that first reunion.
In 1974, George wrote to John to say Christian had disappeared into the wild and was never heard from again. But his legacy has never been forgotten and carries on in the work John now does to support the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust.
John became a Trustee of the Trust, which was founded after George was tragically murdered in 1989 by a Somali gang after a lifetime of successfully rehabilitating nearly 30 lions.
Adamant on furthering George’s dream of seeing a wild Africa where animals roam free, today John visits schools telling Christian’s story to encourage children to care about wildlife conservation.
“When we took Christian to Kenya there were 400,000 lions in Africa. Now there are just 20,000. In schools we talk about Christian to get the children’s attention; from there we can discuss the importance of conservation.
“In Africa we also work with schools surrounding the national park the Trust helps look after, explaining that saving wildlife could help their parents’ livelihood and even their own education, as the wildlife draws tourists which can draw money to keep children in secondary school and that’s a real clincher – seeing these animals as friends not enemies. The hope now is that Christian’s legacy will raise awareness of the threat to all wildlife.”