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Winnipeg: | | | |
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - The home of
Winnie-the-Pooh
 A
Short History of Pooh and
Winnie
Excerpt used with the permission of Poohcorner.com
As
written by Peter Dennis
“…However, there is little doubt about the
origins of the bear and I am very grateful to Gordon Crossley, the
Regimental Historian of the Fort Garry Horse in Winnipeg, Canada,
who generously gave me considerable help in clarifying the
background history of the original Winnie, the American black bear
cub who was the inspiration for A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, the
loveable Bear of Very Little Brain. In August, 1914, Lieutenant
Harry Colebourn, a Veterinary Officer with the 34th Fort Garry Horse
of Manitoba, was travelling by train from his home in Winnipeg to
enroll in the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps in Valcartier, Quebec.
Travelling by Canadian Pacific Railway, he had to change trains at
White River Bend in Ontario, where he noticed a man further along
the station platform with an American black bear cub tied to the arm
of the bench on which he was seated. He struck up a conversation
and, learning that the man was a trapper who had shot and killed the
cub's mother, Colebourn offered him $20 for the young bear -- the
trapper eagerly accepted the offer and the cub was taken to Quebec,
where she became the mascot of the 2nd Canadian Infantry
Brigade.
In December 1914, the 2nd Brigade was
preparing to move to France in great secrecy. Colebourn decided it
was unsafe to take her into battle; so, while passing through London
on the way to France on December 9th, 1914, he visited London Zoo
and asked them to care for the cub until his return, which he
optimistically anticipated would be no longer than two weeks. Of
course, 'that war to end all wars' was not to end so quickly. It was
not until 1918 that Colebourn returned safely to London. Realising
that the bear, now known affectionately by her keepers and visitors
as Winnie, was happy and content in her new home, he decided to
leave her there.
He visited her a number of times during the
following years to renew his friendship, and the cub grew up to be a
big friendly bear who lived and played happily among many thousands
of friends, both animal and human, until she died there peacefully
on the of 12th May, 1934. In 1921, Harry Colebourn, now a Major,
returned to his old unit, The Fort Garry Horse, and continued to
serve the needs of animals in the military and as a civilian
veterinarian until his death in 1947.
Interestingly, Leslie G. Mainland, L.G.M. of
"The Daily Mail" in his book Secrets Of The Zoo published in 1922,
writes of the Zoo's young bear, Winifred. As there was only one
American black bear residing at the Zoo at that time, there is some
question still as to the real name of the bear.
In Mainland's book, there is a photograph
captioned "Winifred being fed by her keeper with a spoonful of
golden syrup." But history tells us that the cub was named Winnie,
after Winnipeg, Lieutenant Colebourn's hometown.
Milne described Winnie-the-Pooh's daily
'Little Something' as honey, a much more 'singy' food! However, the
late Christopher Robin Milne affectionately recalled that, as a
five-year-old boy, he regularly fed Winnie condensed milk as she
disliked honey! Fortunately for us all, his father immortalized
Pooh's love for honey, rather than condensed milk…”
For a full version of Peter Dennis' story,
click here.
©1999 Peter Dennis, courtesy of the only web
site licensed by the Pooh Trustees, UK <http://www.poohcorner.com/index.html>
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