BELOVED BEAR

Military veterinarian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn was on his way to the First World War training camp in Valcartier, Quebec, in 1914 when his train stopped in White River, Ontario. There he met and bought a friendly seven-month-old female black bear cub. Colebourn named the bear Winnipeg — soon shortened to Winnie — after his hometown. The playful bear, pictured above with Colebourn, became the mascot for the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade. The troops treated Winnie as a pet and took her with them to England. When the brigade left for France in 1915, Colebourn took Winnie to the London Zoo for safekeeping. Seeing how beloved she became, he donated her permanently in 1919. That’s where author A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin, pictured left, got to know her — an acquaintanceship that led to Milne’s famous Winnie the Pooh books. There’s a statue and plaque to Winnie in the zoo to this day.