Spiffy suit aside, he was certainly a prominent figure and even in the UK, in my youth his name was very familiar in relation to both Australian wildlife & Taronga Park. They were lucky with the Giraffe. In the 1970's a similar accident befell a male Giraffe' Victor' at Marwell in the UK. That one never got up again, though it became world news for a few days.
Old Sir Edward had another connection with giraffes - he was blinded in one eye by a giraffe, though I don't know the circumstances.
Bumping this thread to note that there *is* indeed an edition with a monochrome version of this cover, and it has now been reviewed within my ongoing guidebook thread interestingly, another edition released between the two had a *different* cartoon cover entirely!
