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    The Real Winnie: A One-Of-A-Kind Bear
    The Real Winnie: A One-Of-A-Kind Bear
    The Real Winnie: A One-Of-A-Kind Bear
    Ebook133 pages1 hour

    The Real Winnie: A One-Of-A-Kind Bear

    By Val Shushkewich

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    About this ebook

    The story of Winnie, the real Canadian bear that captured the heart of Christopher, son of A.A. Milne, and became immortalized in the Winnie the Pooh stories, is told against the backdrop of the First World War. In August 1914, a Canadian soldier and veterinarian named Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, en route to a training camp in Quebec, purchased a black bear cub in White River, Ontario, which he named Winnipeg.

    First a regimental mascot for Canadians training for wartime service, Winnie then became a star attraction at the London Zoo, and ultimately inspired one of the best-loved characters in children’s literature. For those many generations of readers who adored Winnie the Pooh, and for those intrigued by the unique stories embedded in Canadian history, this book is a feast of information about a one-of-a-kind bear set during a poignant period of world history.

    Today Winnie "lives on" at the London Zoo, in White River and in Winnipeg. Her remarkable legacy is celebrated in many ways – from statues and plaques to festivals and museum galleries.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateSep 12, 2005
    ISBN9781554883509
    The Real Winnie: A One-Of-A-Kind Bear
    Author

    Val Shushkewich

    Val Shushkewich has been studying the lives of birds for most of her life. This is her second book. She was born and raised in Winnipeg and is now living in San Francisco.

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      Book preview

      The Real Winnie - Val Shushkewich

      The Real Winnie

      A One-of-a-Kind Bear

      Val Shushkewich

      Copyright © 2003 Valdine Shushkewich

      All rights reserved. No portion of this book, with the exception of brief extracts for the purpose of literary or scholarly review, may be reproduced in any form without the permission of the publisher.

      Published by Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc.

      P.O. Box 95, Station O, Toronto, Ontario M4A 2M8

      www.naturalheritagebooks.com

      National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Second Printing: August 2005

      Shushkewich, Val, 1950-

                     The real Winnie : a one-of-a-kind bear / Val Shushkewich. — 1st ed.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 1-896219-89-6

      1. Winnipeg (Bear) 2. Colebourn, Harry. 3. Winnie-the-Pooh (Fictitious character) 4. Black bear—Biography. 5. World War, 1914-1918—Canada. I. Title.

      Front cover photo: Captain Harry Colebourn with his cub Winnie at the Salisbury Plain. Courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Colebourn D. Harry 8 Collection, No. N10466.

      Back cover photos: Painting of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Pot, reproduced with permission of Partners in the Park Museum. The Winnie statue in White River, Ontario, courtesy of the Township of White River.

      Cover and text design by Sari Naworynski

      Edited by Jane Gibson and Melissa Hughes

      Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing, Winnipeg, Manitoba

      Natural Heritage / Natural History Inc. acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and the Association for the Export of Canadian Books.

      To my husband Ken

      And to the memory of Winnie, who gave so much

      Contents

      Acknowledgements

      Introduction

      Chapter 1 The Stage Is Set

      Chapter 2 At the White River Railway Station

      Chapter 3 En Route to England

      Chapter 4 On the Salisbury Plain

      Chapter 5 First Days at the London Zoo

      Chapter 6 To the Battlefields

      Chapter 7 Winnie at the London Zoo

      Chapter 8 Enter Christopher Milne

      Chapter 9 The Closing Years

      Chapter 10 The Legacy of Winnie

      Conclusion

      Notes

      Bibliography

      Index

      About the Author

      Acknowledgements

      We gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by CWO Gordon Crossley, Museum Director of The Fort Garry Horse Museum and Archives, housed in the McGregor Armoury in Winnipeg. Gordon provided a wealth of background information and education on the life and times of Veterinary Officer Harry Colebourn and on Winnie the Bear.

      As well, the assistance of Glenn Wright, historian and archivist at the National Library and Archives of Canada, in verifying Colebourn’s military record and detail on the First World War was invaluable. We thank you. Much appreciation goes to Terry Delaney, Curator of the White River Heritage Museum, and to Marilyn Parent Lethbridge, Clerk Administrator for the Corporation of the Township of White River, for their co-operation and support in providing details on the White River portion of this story. We thank Donna Hicks, Executive Director of Partners in the Park in Winnipeg and her colleagues, for providing photographs.

      Appreciation also goes to David Friesen of Winnipeg, who was instrumental in furnishing background information on the happenings in his city that relate to Winnie. To Geoff and Lucille Campey of Dinton, near Salisbury, England, go thanks for their supportive research regarding the Salisbury Plain.

      The author would also like to thank her parents, Irene and George Cuffe of Winnipeg, for their assistance with the book. Thanks also to Ellen Leroe, an author living in San Francisco, who encouraged this publication. A special thank you goes to Melissa Hughes and Jane Gibson of Natural Heritage Books for their editorial support.

      All possible care has been taken to trace the copyright holders of the materials used in this book and to acknowledge same. While many people provided assistance with research, the responsibility for accuracy rests with the author and publisher. Any errors brought to their attention will be rectified in subsequent editions.

      Introduction

      This is a true account of two lives – one man and one bear – and how their coming together almost a hundred years ago led to a remarkable story, one that is still celebrated today. One of the lives is that of a black bear who became famous in her own lifetime, then immortalized through the writings of A.A. Milne, the creator of the series of children’s stories revolving around Winnie the Pooh. The other life is that of a gentle, caring man named Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian and a military officer without whose love for and kindness to animals, a generation of children may well have been deprived of their lovable, furry, honey-eating friend.

      The story begins in 1914. At that time black bears were numerous in Northern Ontario and often were hunted, both for food and for their fur. Sometimes in the spring season, a hunter would shoot a female bear only to discover that she had one or more young cubs. The young animals would not understand what had happened and would be helpless without their mother. Frequently they would not display any fear of the hunter and they would sometimes even follow him around, latching on instinctively to the only large, living mammal in sight. Young cubs, removed from the care of their mother, before she could teach them the necessary skills, were unlikely to survive in the wilds.

      In the case of our story, a female black bear had been shot by a hunter in the summer of 1914. Of her two cubs born earlier that year, the surviving one was found by a trapper and brought into White River, a small community in Northern Ontario, Canada. By some quirk of fate, the trapper and the bear cub were at the White River Railway Station when Lieutenant Harry Colebourn’s train arrived from Winnipeg. He would not leave the station that day without her.

      The story, however, not only involves those lives; it takes place against the backdrop of the First World War, often referred to as The Great War. It is the call to serve in active duty that takes Harry Colebourn to White River and ultimately to the Salisbury Plain in England. Winnie travels in a train carrying soldiers and horses, sails on a troopship and lives in military training camps. Again, it is a call to serve on the battlefields of France that leads to Harry’s donating her to the London Zoo. It is there that A.A. Milne and his son Christopher first meet and come under the spell of this Canadian bear.

      In the author’s telling of

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