Signed Photographs of Virginia McKenna ( Born Free ) and Michael Caine ( Zulu )

Signed colour photograph of Virginia McKenna with Elsa the Lioness and Bill Travers. ( 8 x 6 ). Boldly signed by Virginia McKenna.

In 1964, actress Virginia McKenna OBE and her husband, actor Bill Travers MBE, went to Kenya to make and star in what would become a wildlife classic, Born Free. The film was based on Joy Adamson's best-selling book of the same name – the extraordinary tale of how she and her husband George raised Elsa, an orphaned lion cub, before releasing her into the wilderness of Kenya.

Learning about the plight of wild animals during the making of the film was a life-changing experience for Virginia and Bill, who went on to make a number of wildlife films and documentaries together, including An Elephant Called Slowly with a young wild-caught elephant calf called Pole Pole. After filming, Pole Pole was gifted to London Zoo by the Kenyan government despite Virginia and Bill’s protests. Years later, Virginia and Bill went to the zoo to visit Pole Pole. Seeing her distress, they launched a campaign for her release but Pole Pole died in 1983, aged just 16.

The premature death of Pole Pole led to Virginia and Bill establishing Zoo Check in 1984 with their eldest son Will Travers OBE. Zoo Check evolved to become the Born Free Foundation in 1991. Today, Will Travers is Born Free's President.

Signed colour photograph of Michael Caine in his role as Lt Gonville Bromhead in the film Zulu. ( 8x 6 ).

Zulu is a 1964 British epic war film depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift between the British Army and the Zulus in January 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War. It shows how 150 British soldiers, 30 of whom were sick and wounded patients in a field hospital, successfully held off a force of 4,000 Zulu warriors.