Born Free co-founders assemble two millionth Series Land Rover and Defender at Solihull.
Born Free Foundation co-founders Virginia McKenna OBE and Will Travers OBE rolled up their sleeves to help assemble the two-millionth Series Land Rover and Defender to roll off the production line at Land Rover’s Solihull plant.
The pair were part of a 22-strong team of famous Defender fans, including adventurer Bear Grylls and entrepreneur Theo Paphitis, who helped construct the bespoke vehicle. Virginia fitted the number plates, while Will worked on wheel alignment and took the vehicle through the rolling road test.
Born Free Foundation – and the Travers family – has a long association with Land Rover, dating all the way back to 1966 when Land Rover vehicles were featured in the much-loved film Born Free. An official partnership was launched between the two organisations in 2002 when Born Free was chosen as one of Land Rover’s Global Sponsorship Partners.
Land Rover vehicles are used by Born Free to carry out its important compassionate conservation work, stopping individual wild animal suffering, protecting threatened species and supporting local communities. The vehicles provide the international wildlife charity with the unparalleled ability to reach wildlife in some of the most remote locations of Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia and India.
Recent Born Free projects involving Land Rover include helping relocate two rescued lionesses, Maggie and Sonja, to Born Free’s Big Cat Rescue and Education Centre at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa; supporting Born Free’s Satpuda Landscape Tiger Programme, which works to protect the Bengal tiger and its habitat throughout Central India; and resourcing the Kenya Wildlife Service as part of Born Free’s Lion Rover project in the Meru Conservation area of northern Kenya, where George and Joy Adamson successfully returned the original Elsa to the wild.
Born Free Foundation Founder and Trustee Virginia McKenna OBE said: “Despite being seriously unmechanically-skilled, I was given the great privilege of attaching the number plates to this very special Defender. Land Rover has been in our lives since 1964, when my husband Bill and I went to Kenya to film ‘Born Free’. Each day we went out in our vehicle with George Adamson and a lion; out on to the plains for our early morning walk.
“Fifty-one years later, Will and I were in the Land Rover assembly plant and learning about the history of this unique company. A history in which we are grateful to still play a small part.”
Born Free Foundation President Will Travers OBE added: “The Land Rover Defender is part of Born Free’s DNA. Its vehicles permit us to carry out some of our most challenging conservation and wild animal welfare work. To have the chance to spend even a few minutes with the passionate vehicle assembly teams, helping put together a motoring icon, felt like making history.”
The bespoke Defender 90 features a plethora of unique finishing touches, including a plaque signed by everyone who helped assemble the vehicle, and a special ‘No. 2,000,000’ badge.
The vehicle will be publicly unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed held on 25-28 June. It will then be auctioned at a prestigious charity event at Bonhams auction house, in London, on 16 December. Funds raised from the auction will be shared between Born Free and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies .
Dr Ralf Speth, Chief Executive of Jaguar Land Rover, added: “Giving people the chance to buy this truly distinctive Defender to raise funds for the IFRC and Born Free Foundation is a suitable way to celebrate the role that Defender has played in supporting our humanitarian aid and conservation partners over the decades.”
