Pole Pole was the last African Elephant at ZSL (which answers your other question, though I can't give a final date off top of my head) Due to intense publicity pressure and critisism from Animal Rights etc, she was due to be moved to Whipsnade but collapsed and died during the transport/crating process. The history of Pole Pole can be found on other threads if you search.
Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, the human stars of the film Born Free, made a follow-up entitled An Elephant Called Slowly. Pole Pole was the eponymous star of this, and when filming was shot, she was sent, unhealthily humanised, to London, with its appalling elephant house and then regime of minimal training. It was a match made in hell, as may be imagined.
After many years of mounting criticism, the decision was made to send her to Whipsnade in the autumn of 1983. Their elephant keepers probably had mixed feeling about her demise. However, the Blessed Virginia saw this as a sign to launch ZooCheck, now known as the Born Free Foundation.
