The man behind ‘the Pooh’

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This article was published 07/11/2016 (3438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Quick — come up with the name of the man described as follows: a veterinarian charged with the health of military horses during the First World War whose pet was later dubbed “pooh,” another word for teddy bear.

The answer is Lt. Harry Colebourn, the man behind Winnie the Pooh.

Monday, the Pavilion Gallery at Assiniboine Park opened a new exhibit on the man behind the bear, titled Remembering the Real Winnie: The World’s Most Famous Bear Turns 100.

The exhibit has objects from Colebourn’s personal collection, including First World War diaries, some from his time at Vimy Ridge and the Battle of the Somme.

The diary entry regarding the decision Colebourn made that helped launch a children’s literature industry reads: “Aug. 24, 1914. Bought (Winnie) cub bear at White River, Ont. Paid $20.”

“It’s marvellous that we have a product that went to war and came back,” said exhibition curator Irene Gammel.

Colebourn, on his way from Winnipeg to serve in the Great War, was persuaded to buy the brown female cub from a trapper during a stop before heading overseas to England.

He named the cub Winnie — after the city he called home — and took the animal overseas where it became the mascot for the Fort Garry Horse Regiment, in which Colebourn served as a veterinary officer.

Also in the exhibit are photos of individual soldiers with Winnie that were mailed back home to family and friends.

“The photos played a social role for the families. The photos said: ‘I’m OK,’” said Gammel, who was part of a team at Toronto’s Ryerson University that put the exhibit together.

The photos also took soldiers’ minds off the tedium and danger of war.

“It is about creating a safe space” in a time of war, Gammel said.

Gammel solved the mystery of the meaning of “pooh,” but didn’t discover its origins.

Colebourn’s great-granddaughter, Lindsay Mattick, was on hand for the ribbon-cutting Monday. The exhibit was inspired by Finding Winnie, her picture book that tells the story behind the real bear.

Mattick said she was struck by how “a simple loving act (purchasing a bear cub) can create a ripple effect” that would change the course of children’s literature.

Colebourn kept the bear with him and his regiment while they trained in England, but when they were shipped to France he left the animal at the London Zoo. The bear was about one year old at the time and starting to become rambunctious. When the war was over, Colebourn stayed in England to do post-graduate work at London’s Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Winnie would become a star attraction at the zoo during the war years and through the 1920s and ’30s until she died in 1934. British author A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin, saw Winnie at the zoo, and the bear inspired a series of books and poems.

The new exhibit replaces the Pooh Gallery, which displayed memorabilia related to the fictional Winnie. The exhibit will remain open for a year and is free to the public.

— staff

The digitized version of the exhibit, including the complete diaries, can be viewed at therealwinnie.ryerson.ca.