Craig has been touched by a wonderful email from Jenny Walker & wanted to share this story with everyone connected to The Born Free Foundation, the Born Free movie and fans of two very special Lions GIRL & BOY who both became international stars around the world.

Two very special Lions to Jenny & her father Ron Ryves & Virginia Mckenna & Bill Travers not to mention George Adamson. I wanted to share this touching email with eveyone who has bought my Limited edition print of GIRL. (50% of all sales goes to the Born Free Foundation to benefit Wildlife conservation worldwide).

Girl

The following is the email received from Jenny Walker.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would just like to say that I have been on the web looking for information and I came across your web site.

I am still very breathless as before my eyes I saw my lion cub Girl in all her glory painted by Craig Roberts.

When I was in Kenya in 1963 my father had the two lions Boy and Girl. His name was Ron Ryves and was in the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards. The army was asked if they would like these two lion cubs as their mascots and my father took them on and bought them home to live with us. These two 7 week old cubs were with us for 9 months and then Kenya went independent. The British army had to come back to England which left my father in a dilemma as to what to do with the lions. He refused to put them into a zoo and was quite willing to come out of the army to free the lions. He approached George Adamson who said that he would take them both on and set them free into the wild. It had been a difficult task for us at the time of bringing them up as we used to put live rabbits in the garden to try and get them to kill their own food, but, to no avail. My father was with Boy and Girl for two weeks of filming as the lions were not used to other people and my father was their mother if you like. It was one of the saddest times of my entire life when I had to say goodbye to my Boy and Girl who used to sleep on my bed.  I can see the days when I used to run home from school to take them for a long walk on their leads. It was a privilege and an honour to have been part of Boy and Girls life.

Can you pass onto Craig Roberts that the picture that he has done of Girl is fantastic and captures her as I remember her and brought a tear to my eye.

Regards

Jenny Walker (nee Ryves)