The Real Winnie: A One-of-a-Kind Bear

Tim Cook is the World War I historian at the Canadian War Museum. He is
the author of No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the
First World War.

A.A. Milne’s much-loved Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a Canadian
soldier’s wartime pet. Shushkewich examines the real history of Winnie
the Canadian bear in this charming book.

While embarking to fight for King and country during World War I,
Lieutenant Harry Colebourn, a veterinary officer for a Winnipeg
battalion, purchased a little black bear from a hunter. Winnie (short
for Winnipeg) went overseas with the Canadian unit. When Colebourn and
his comrades were sent to the Western Front in early 1915, Winnie was
sent to the London Zoo, just one of six bears that had been brought
across the Atlantic with Canadians. The gentle Winnie, who had been
raised by Colebourn and lived among humans her whole life, was an
instant hit with an adoring British public and visiting soldiers.
Colebourn did not have the heart to remove Winnie after the war, and she
remained the zoo’s star attraction.

Shushkewich spins a fine story about Colebourn and Winnie, especially
the latter’s rise to fame at the London Zoo. Notwithstanding a few
errors in the section on Canadians and the war, this reviewer would have
liked to see a little more about the many incarnations of Winnie in
films, books, and cartoons, especially as a cultural icon and now a
Disney product. But this is an ideal book for all who have been
enchanted by our honey pot–clutching friend. Winnie is surely a
Canadian worthy of a biography.