War teddy may fetch £600
A STAFFORDSHIRE teddy whose amazing wartime exploits were laid bare is to be sold at auction.
The toy, used as a mascot by Tom Matthews, from Stafford, during the Allied drive to Germany, was at the Battle of the Bulge and took part in the 1945 victory parade through Berlin.
Because of its amazing story, the teddy is expected to realise £600 when it goes under the hammer at Hanson’s London sale on Monday.
“I’ve never heard such an amazing story connected to a humble teddy bear,” says boss Charles Hanson.
“He’s crossed Europe in a tank with the Allies and come under enemy fire but, although he’s a little battle-weary, he’s survived. I’m honoured to be selling him.”
The toy was given to Tom, a member of the Royal Artillery’s 62nd anti-tank regiment, by a Dutch woman after her hometown of Raamsdonksveer was liberated in 1944.
The soldier, who died in 1990 at the age of 74, handed it to his son, Tom Jnr – and it has languished in the loft of his Stafford home for 40 years.
“One of my first memories of dad is seeing him – and the bear – after he was demobbed in 1946,” says Tom Jnr, a retired aircraft technician.
“I would only have been about three, but I remember him walking through the door at 2.15am and saying ‘What the bl**y hell is he doing up at this time?’. “We were all there to welcome him home. He had a large German ammunition box and inside was the bear and a yellow corduroy elephant.
“He told me he’d used the bear as a pillow when he slept in his tank in the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.”