Celia Hammond swapped catwalk modelling for cat rescue. Now at the helm of the Celia Hammond Animal Trust she tells the Mirror why our four legged friends need help more than ever
A star of the swinging ‘60s, she graced countless Vogue covers, showcased Paris fashion collections and even had a song written for her by Donovan. But Celia Hammond abandoned her modelling career – swapping the catwalk for cat rescue. Now, 40 years after establishing her charity, the woman who legendary photographer Norman Parkinson pinpointed as a ‘star’, is fronting a fundraising campaign to help more four-legged friends.
Celia who helms the Celia Hammond Animal Trust, with sites in London and Sussex, says: “The need is greater than ever. People say ‘why animals?’ But I say ‘why not?’ I understand there is a lot going on in the world right now, but how we treat our animals is an indication of where our compassion lies. Once we lose our compassion for animals the next notch is children or the elderly. We know because of the work we do here how important animals are to us as a human race. They ease loneliness. They become part of our lives.”
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Now 85, Celia has helped rehome more than 73,000 abandoned and unwanted animals and is campaigning to fund the next phase of a £1.5m project to build a new centre beside the trust’s current veterinary clinic in Lewisham, south east London. The daughter of a tea taster – Celia’s father worked in Indonesia for Brooke Bond – she spent much of her childhood with relatives in Devon.
Leaving school unsure of what to do, her mother suggested modelling school. It was at the Lucie Clayton Academy – which also produced Jean Shrimpton – where she was first spotted, although her career began less than auspiciously. She says: “I’d already done a couple of jobs. On one I remember the photographer saying ‘she’ll never get anywhere with those legs.’ That really left a scar and knocked my confidence. Then Norman Parkinson came into the agency. He used to arrive every year to look at the girls and see if there were any he might want to use. We had a bit of a chat. Then, apparently, he went downstairs and told the agency ‘you have a star up there’.”
From that moment she was ‘adopted’ by the famous portrait and fashion photographer. She says: “He took me to Paris. He kept an eye on me for weeks, monitored what I ate – no sugar in my tea – because I needed to lose weight. The Paris dresses were still too small for me, so the seamstresses would cut them down the back and hold them together with safety pins while he photographed me in them. Once the shoot was done, they would stitch them back up again and then they’d go back to the shows. It was hard work. We shot through the night. Without him, I don’t know what I’d have done. He was a character, one of the best, a lovely man.”
Soon Celia was bagging cover shoots with glossy magazines including Queen, Tatler and Vogue. Also working in New York, she worked with other great photographers like David Bailey and Terry O’Neil. Mixing with stars, she still counts Joanna Lumley as a key supporter and became good friends with singer songwriter Donovan.
Despite having previously modelled fur, she began campaigning to stop its promotion in the fashion industry, after witnessing TV footage of a seal cull in Canada. Her campaign sparked national interest and prompted Donovan to write ‘Celia of the Seals’ about her. She says: “He was a lovely guy – I was close with him and his girlfriend.”
Despite still being lauded in front of the camera, Celia – who by 1968 was dating rock guitarist Jeff Beck – had taken the next step in her lifelong animal activism journey. She says: “I have always been passionate about animals. I’m an only child and my mum used to travel back and forth to see my father in Indonesia. On one trip home she got two kittens, but then she went back abroad and they had to be rehomed. I loved them and, as a little girl, that experience really stayed with me.”
At the height of her fame, she and some friends spotted a starving cat and kittens inside a derelict house. After rescuing them, she passed her number onto a woman they had seen feeding another stray. Before she knew it, she was fielding calls from across London from people asking for help with rescues. She says: “I had this compulsion to get them to safety. I can’t ignore suffering. I love all animals, but cats are so incredibly brave; they put up with terrible suffering and terrible conditions. They’re stoic.”
Soon Celia was driving through the night several times a week from the Kent home she shared with Jeff, helping rescue London’s stray cat population, enlisting a local vet to get them neutered. She says: “I was cancelling modelling bookings. I had to make a choice and I chose to rescue animals – that was my path.”
Her devotion to the cause also affected her relationship. She says: “Jeff put up with it as long as he could, and then the whole thing just got between us, and it wasn’t workable.” In 1986 she established the Celia Hammond Animal Trust and less than a decade later opened the charity’s first low-cost neutering clinic in Lewisham, dedicated to controlling the feral cat population and providing low-cost neutering for pets.
A second clinic followed in 1999 in Canning Town. The charity, which has an ethos of non destruction, also runs a sanctuary in Sussex. The trust has also been involved in significant rescues of animals, including one which saw 204 Yorkshire Terriers and 37 cats saved from horrific conditions. Celia says: “It’s one of the worst things we’ve ever seen. The dogs were kept in what looked like airline pet carriers stacked on top of each other in a windowless shed. No food or water and some had died.”
In March 2025 the trust again stepped in to help with 48 dogs and 12 cats kept in a south London three bedroom semi. All were rehomed including Bichon Frise cross, Maisie, who lost part of her leg due to the conditions. She is now firmly ensconced with charity trustee, Naomi Sheen. Celia who won a Mirror Pride of Britain award in 2003, says: “Doing this work allows you to see the very worst of human nature – but it also allows you to see the best.”
Naomi agrees, saying: “The feeling you get when you’ve helped an animal makes everything worthwhile.” But pressure on the trust has ramped up hugely in recent years – hence the need for a new animal centre. A combination of the Covid pandemic, which prompted an increase in pet ownership, coupled with vet shortages, increasing vet fees and the cost of living crisis has, says Celia, created a crisis in welfare. She adds: “Other charities have cut back services. Need is going up and in some areas provision is going down.”
Celia, whose charity finds homes for around 1,900 unwanted and abandoned animals each year, has had support in the past from celebrities including Rod Stewart and Johnny Depp – who played a private charity concert for the trust. She’s now appealing directly to the public for donations. Despite still working seven days a week, she has no regrets about abandoning her glamorous life. She says: “It was a great time and I had fun. But what I do now means I am making a difference.”
*For more information about the trust, or to donate visit www.justgiving.com/campaign/celia-hammond-animal-trust-rehoming-centre
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