George Adamson

George Adamson studied at Dean Close School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is natural history, natural science and zoology. Distinctions recorded are Member of the Order of the British Empire and Order of the British Empire.

• Name — George Adamson • Birth Name — George Alexander Graham Adamson • Born — 3 February 1906 • Birthplace — Etawah, India • Died — 20 August 1989 • Place of death — Kora National Park, Coast Province, Kenya • Death Cause — Murder • Resting Place — Kora National Park • Other Names — Bwana Game, Baba ya Simba • Occupation — * Wildlife conservationist • author • Website — http: www.georgeadamson.org

George Alexander Graham Adamson was born on 3 February 1906 in Etawah, India, to English and Irish parents. He was educated at Dean Close School, Cheltenham, England, and moved to work on his father's coffee plantations in Kenya in 1924. After the death of his parents he worked in a series of jobs, which included gold prospector, goat trader and professional safari hunter, before joining Kenya's wildlife department in 1938, working as a game warden. Six years later he married Friederike Victoria "Joy" Gessner (who became best-selling author Joy Adamson). In 1956 he began raising the orphaned lioness cub, Elsa. The story of raising and releasing Elsa into the wild became the subject of his wife's best-selling book Born Free (1960), which was made into the feature film Born Free in 1966. Adamson retired as a Senior Wildlife Warden of the Northern Frontier District Province of Kenya (Meru National Park area) in 1961 and devoted himself to raising lions that could not look after themselves and training them to survive in the wild. In 1970, he moved to the Kora National Reserve in northern Kenya to continue the rehabilitation of captive or orphaned big cats for eventual reintroduction into the wild. George and Joy separated that same year, but continued to spend Christmas holidays together until she was murdered on 3 January 1980.

On 20 August 1989, George Adamson was also murdered near his camp in Kora National Park, by Somali bandits, when he went to the rescue of his assistant and a young European tourist in the Kora National Park. He was 83 years old. George is buried in the Kora National Park next to his brother, Terrance and two lions named Super Cub and Mugie, a lion released in Kora after George's death.

George Adamson is recorded as naturalist, film director, zoologist, environmentalist and writer.