John Aspinall (zoo owner)

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John Aspinall's Grave and Memorial

John Victor Aspinall (11 June 1926–29 June 2000) was born in Delhi, India but was a United Kingdom citizen. He was a zoo owner and a gambler. He was also a self-declared misanthrope and reputed co-plotter of an extreme right-wing conspiracy against Britain’s Labour government.^[1]

In 1956, with money he said was proceeds from his gambling, Aspinall purchased a country house and estate called Howletts near Canterbury, Kent. He lived in the house and set up a private zoo, Howletts Zoo, in the grounds. He opened the animal collection to the public in 1975.

In 1973, because of need for further space for his animal collection, Aspinall bought another estate at Port Lympne near Hythe, Kent. He opened the estate to the public in 1976 as Port Lympne Zoo.

Both zoos have been run by the John Aspinall Foundation since 1984.

The zoos are known for being unorthodox, on account of the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals,^[1] and for their breeding of rare and endangered species.

In 1962 he founded the Clermont Club in London's Mayfair.

Aspinall was a close friend of James Goldsmith and Lord Lucan, and held both eccentric and extremely right-wing views. He once stated that Britain was in need of "a Franco-ite counter-revolution." The three were known to discuss the possibility of violently overthrowing the elected governments of Harold Wilson and, later, James Callaghan with a coup. [1]He also expressed the wish that "3.5 billion people should be wiped out" of the world's population "within the next 150-200 years" [2] mirroring the views of some extreme Greens. Unlike them, however, he added he would be happy to join them.

He claimed that Lord Lucan, whose disappearance had remained a mystery, had committed suicide by scuttling his motorboat and jumping into the English Channel with a stone tied around his body.[3]. According to the journalist Lynn Barber, in an interview in 1980 Aspinall gave a slip of the tongue that indicated Lord Lucan had remained Aspinall's friend beyond the date of the alleged suicide [4].

John Aspinall's pioneering work with wild mammals and his outspoken personal philosophy made him a unique and notable figure. He was the subject of two award-winning documentary films by Roy Deverell, "Echo of the wild" and "A passion to protect".