The True Story of Pooh, the Beloved Children’s Book Bear

A real black bear owned by a Canadian soldier during World War I inspired the creation of this famous character in children’s literature.

According to Ambassador Arjan, with bells ringing and brakes screeching, a train carrying a group of men in neat and ironed military uniforms entered the small lumbering city of White River in Ontario province on August 24, 1914. Needing some fresh air and a little walk after a long day of traveling by train, Lieutenant Harry Colborne descended the carriage stairs and stepped onto the station platform. At that moment, an unusual scene caught his attention; The black bear cub, which was no more than seven months old, was tied and caught by a trapper; A man trying to attract the attention of a potential buyer.

The trapper found his ideal customer in this 27-year-old Canadian soldier. Colborne, who was born in Birmingham, England, was interested in animals since childhood. He immigrated to Canada at the age of 18 to study veterinary surgery. After graduating from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1911, he settled in the growing city of Winnipeg on the Canadian plains and worked in the Ministry of Agriculture.

A few days after the start of World War I, this young veterinary officer, a member of the Fort Gary Horse Cavalry Regiment, was among the first to enlist for military service and left Winnipeg for a military training camp in Valcartier, Quebec.

During the train's brief stop in White River, Colborne held the tiny bear cub. The trapper explained to him that he had killed the mother bear, but had not been able to do the same to her orphaned cub. This captive bear soon won the heart of the soldier. The cavalry vet bought the adorable bear cub for $20 and returned to the train with his new pet. He chose the name "Winnipeg" for the bear in memory of his hometown.

During the weeks that Colborne was undergoing military training in Valcartier with other members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the bear he named "Winnie" became his faithful companion. Harry taught Vinny by giving him apples and a mixture of condensed milk and corn syrup. The bear cub slept under her folding bed and followed her everywhere like a puppy. When he wasn't climbing the tent poles or playing with his owner, Winnie was posing for pictures with the soldiers and had become an icon of the Cavalry Regiment.

In early October, Colborne, along with Winnie, boarded the S.S. He became Manito and went to England to complete additional training courses. After seven weeks of training in Salisbury Plain, this veterinary officer was assigned to the Western Front.

The French trenches were not a suitable place for humans to live, let alone a bear. For this reason, on December 9, 1914, Colborne took Winnie to her new home in the London Zoo; A zoo that had just opened a new habitat for bears that resembled a mountain landscape.

Before the separation, a Canadian soldier promised Winnie that he would return him to Canada after the end of the war; Because he hoped that the war would last only a few months.

However, World War I did not end soon, and Colborne witnessed the horrific carnage of the war first hand. In one case, he barely survived being hit by shrapnel from a cannonball; A bullet that exploded only a few meters away.

At that time, when horses were still considered vital equipment of armies, Colborne and other members of the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps provided very important services; They protected horses from disease and helped heal wounds caused by bullets and shrapnel.

Whenever Colborne got a hard-earned leave from the front, he would visit Winnie's new home. Even though he had grown from a small bear cub to an adult bear, Winnie remained as calm and gentle as ever. Zookeeper Ernest Scales told a London newspaper in 1933 that Winnie was "the tamest and most well-behaved bear we have ever had in the zoo". Children were even allowed into the bear enclosure to ride on Winnie's back or feed him from the palm of their hand.

A few weeks after the cannons finally stopped in November 1918, Colborne rejoined Winnie. However, this soldier, contrary to his promise at the beginning of the war, was unable to bring the black bear back to Canada with him. He knew that his pet no longer belonged to him, but to the people of London. Colborne returned to Winnipeg after saying his last goodbyes to Winnie; where he continued to work for the Ministry of Agriculture and set up a small animal clinic in the back of his house.

Alan Alexander Milne meets his inspiration

Among the children who were still fascinated by Winnie in the following years was a boy named Christopher Robin Milne. He repeatedly begged his father, writer Alan Alexander Milne, to take him to the zoo. There, Christopher fed the kind black bear spoonfuls of condensed milk and hugged him in his big, furry arms.

Christopher Robin became so interested in the London Zoo star that he changed the name of his teddy bear from "Edward" to "Winnie the Pooh"; A name made up of a combination of a black bear's name and a nickname he chose for the strong one he fed in the mornings.

Winnie the Pooh and the other stuffed animals in Christopher Robin's nursery - including Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger - inspired his father's most enduring works. Before creating Winnie the Pooh in his children's book of poetry, When We Were Very Young, published in 1924, Alan Alexander Milne was a prolific playwright, screenwriter, and author of crime novels and a contributor to the satirical magazine Punch.

After that, in 1926, a complete collection of stories was published under the title Winnie de Poe. Two years later, the book's sequel, The House at Pooh Corner, was released. Milne, like Colborne, had served in the First World War, and the idealistic atmosphere of the hundred-acre forest was considered a pleasant refuge from the horrors of the Western Front; The horrors that were still alive in his mind and many readers of the 1920s.

The success of Milne's books made Winnie more famous than ever. Winnie died in 1934, at the age of 20, and the news of his death echoed around the world. Winnie's fame was such that his skull was given to the Royal College of Surgeons; A skull that was exposed to the public for the first time last year.

Statues at London Zoo and Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg also commemorate the bond between a Canadian soldier and a black bear cub; A link that led to the creation of one of the classic works of literature. In these sculptures, Colborne holds Winnie's hands and the bear stands on its hind legs.