Chimp trainer Molly dies

Zoo founder Molly Badham, who trained the famous PG Tips chimps for TV adverts and set up her first pet shop in Birmingham, has died at the age of 93.

Molly was an expert on primates and co-founded Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire. She was born in 1914, the daughter of an internationally-known herbalist. An animal lover from an early age, after leaving Town School in Sutton Coldfield she set up a boarding kennel and started to breed dogs, using the profits to open her first pet shop in the town.

She saw her first monkey in the window of a rival pet shop in 1949 and joined forces with its owner Nathalie Evans. The pair moved in together and shared a flat with two chimps, Sue and Mickey.

In 1954 Molly and Nathalie moved to a bungalow at Hints, near Tamworth, where their collection of small animals grew to such an extent that, in 1963, they paid £12,000 for a Victorian house with 12 acres of land, later to become Twycross Zoo.

Farm buildings and stables were converted into animal enclosures, and over the years they bought adjoining fields and cottages to house the keepers.

Fees paid for the chimps' TV appearances were used to fund the development.

Molly trained the chimps featured in the Brooke Bond PG Tips adverts which showed the animals dressed as humans, with props and in everyday situations, voiced by actors from the Carry On films.

Molly and Nathalie established the collection and premises as the East Midlands Zoological Society, a charitable trust.

Often Molly kept baby chimps at home, bottle-feeding them and dressing them in nappies. The zoo housed animals such as elephants, sea lions, giraffes, birds and reptiles.

Molly was a founder member of National Federation of Zoological Gardens of Great Britain and Ireland and a member of the International Union of Directors of Zoological Gardens.

She she was given the MBE in 2002.

Molly died on Friday October 19 at the age of 93.