Did you know that the real Winnie was a Canadian? That's right, Winnie-the-bear was born somewhere near a log cabin just outside White River, Ontario.
As a young black-bear cub, Winnie had no indication of the fame and fortune that awaited her that's correct, her. She played, ate berries, and did other regular bear things until her mother was killed and a hunter found the cub, fed her, and brought her to White River. Shortly thereafter, a train passed through town on its way to Military Camp Valcartier, Quebec. Lt. Harry Colebourn stepped off that train for a breath of fresh air and met the guardian hunter. A young veterinary officer serving with Winnipeg's Fort Garry Horse, Colebourn purchased the cub and stepped back on the train.
Born in England, Lt. Colebourn had earned his degree from the Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph, and had worked for the Department of Agriculture in Winnipeg. His diary for August 24, 1914, reads "On train all day. Bought cub bear at White River, Amt. paid $20.00." He had just left his home and position in Winnipeg to serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Europe, and in honour of the Manitoba city, named the cub Winnie.
The two became good friends on the journey overseas and arrived safely at Salisbury Plain where the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade was encamped. Winnie stayed in Colebourn's tent, slept under his bed, and became a favorite pet to many of the Canadian soldiers. She played games with the men and followed them around camp like a puppy. But when the unit was ordered to the battlefields of France, Winnie had to be placed with the London Zoo for safekeeping.
Mascots and pets were not uncommon among the Canadian soldiers, and the London Zoo records that no fewer than five black bears were presented to them by Canadian units during the first year of the Great War. But Winnie was everyone's favorite. A newspaper story quoted a keeper who exclaimed "Never trust a bear!" but went on to exclude Winnie who, he said "is quite the tamest and best behaved bear we have ever had at the Zoo."
Lt. Harry Colebourn never forgot his bear. When on leave from the front, he visited Winnie and had planned to take her back to Canada after the war. When he saw how much she meant to the kids visiting the zoo, however, he changed his mind. Winnie lived to the ripe old age of twenty at the London Zoo.
Christopher Robin
One of Winnie's most delightful charms was her uncanny ability to remember an admirer. She would always greet a recognized, friendly face in the same fashion by rubbing her flanks against their legs and this is how she said hello to a regular young visitor named Christopher Robin. Christopher was the son of A.A. Milne, World War I veteran, author, and one-time assistant editor of Punch Magazine. Both father and son were quite taken by Winnie. In 1926 A.A. Milne published "Winnie-the-Pooh," and two years later followed with the sequel "The House At Pooh Corner." Milne's Winnie, the Winnie-the-Pooh we know today, was perhaps not as well behaved as the original, but is every bit as irresistible.
It is possible that Milne did not know how the zoo's Winnie got her name. But in his introduction to Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne described for us his link to the White River bruin: ...Christopher Robin... once had a swan that he used to call Pooh. Well, when Edward Bear said that he would like an exciting name all to himself, Christopher Robin said at once, without stopping to think, that he was Winnie the Pooh. And he was. So, as I have explained the Pooh part, I will now explain the rest of it.
When Christopher Robin goes to the Zoo, he goes to where the Polar Bears are, and he whispers something to the third keeper from the left, and the doors are unlocked, and we wander through dark passages and up steep stairs, until at last we come to the special cage, and the cage is opened, and out trots something brown and furry, and with a happy cry of 'Oh Bear!' Christopher Robin rushes into his arms. Now this bear's name is Winnie, which shows what a good name for bears it is.
Other Honours for Winnie
Although this is the first Canadian stamp to use Disney's Winnie the Pooh, Winnie already has four statues erected in London, England and Canada. In 1981, the Zoological Society of London unveiled a statue of Winnie to commemorate Milne and his illustrator Ernest Shepard. An accompanying plaque gives no credit to Lt. Harry Colebourn. To rectify the situation, a second statue was presented to the London Zoo in 1995 by the people of Manitoba, with proper credit given. A statue of Winnie and Lt. Colebourn was erected in Winnipeg in 1992, and White River, Ontario erected a Disney-type statue of Winnie sitting in a tree with his cherished honey pot in hand. In addition, a Shepard-type Winnie was featured when Great Britain issued four stamps in 1979 to commemorate children's books during the International Year of the Child. And for Stamp Month this year, 82 years after Lt. Colebourn originally befriended a little cub at a Canadian train station, Canada honours the world's best-loved bear!