Harry Colebourn (1887-1947) was a lieutenant with the Royal Canadian Army Veterinary Corps. He was on a train taking him to the port where he would board a troop ship on its way to the fighting in Europe. When Colebourn’s train stopped for water in White River, Manitoba, Ontario, he got off to do some meandering and stretch his legs, stiff from sitting for so long in a drafty carriage (what they called railroad passenger cars back then). By’m by, Harry came across a hunter with a bear cub that was only a few months old. The hunter had just killed the cub’s mother and was offering to sell the little orphan.
Do You Know the Real Winnie-the-Pooh or Just the One In the Children’s Books?
Harry the veterinarian bought the cute little critter for $20 and got back on the train
In honor of his adopted home, Winnipeg, Harry named his pet Winnie. He took the cub aboard his troop ship, something far less likely to happen today. When their ship arrived in England, Harry’s cute little bear became the unofficial mascot of his Canadian regiment. When Colebourn was sent to the front, he left his bear in the care of the London Zoo. One of the zookeepers said Winnie was the best-behaved bear anyone had ever seen.
A little boy and his father came back to the Zoo to visit Winnie again and again
Winnie made quite an impression on a young Christopher Robin Milne and his writer father, Alan Alexander.
The boy had a teddy bear he named Edward Bear
His other stuffed animals included a tiger named Tigger, a donkey named Eeyore, a piglet named Piglet, a kangaroo named Kanga with her baby Roo safely in her pouch. The real bear Winnie was a she-cub (wilderness-correct). Christopher Robin was so taken with seeing her at the London Zoo that he changed his teddy bear’s name to Winnie. Never mind his teddy bear was a boy bear and the real Winnie was a girl bear. No surgery was necessary.
Winnie-the-Pooh was his teddy bear and he was a boy bear, and that’s that
Something about the pen being mightier than the scalpel.
A.A. had bigger fish to fry
He envisioned a series of children’s stories built around a little bear named Winnie, inspired by the real Winnie the bear. One story says Milne added -the-Pooh to Winnie’s name because he once met a swan named Pooh while he was on holiday (what the Brits call vacation). Another said it was Christopher who fed a swan every morning and named him Pooh, the name of the swan in an earlier poem written by his father. There are other complicated versions, but all agree there was a lady swan, and she was named Pooh by either Christopher Robin or his father. The only thing missing is a grassy knoll.
Either way, why is it Winnie-the-Pooh instead of just Winnie Pooh?
If his name is Winnie-the-Pooh, does that mean he’s a Pooh? You know, like Tony the Tiger is a tiger, Arnold the Pig is a pig, and Smokey the Bear* is a bear? I’ve never thought of Winnie-the-Pooh as anything but a storybook bear, in spite of his being a $50 billion merchandising conglomerate. I’d like to be able to tell you why no one calls him by the orphaned bear cub’s name (Winnie) or his stuffed teddy bear’s name (Winnie). I was unable to find why he’s called Pooh instead of the more logical Winnie III.
And what exactly is a Pooh**?
As far as I know, it’s a dismissive sound people make, sorta like pffft.
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*Smokey the Bear is what everyone calls him, even though his actual name is Smokey Bear (the the is silent). Since 1944, he’s been the face of a public service campaign promoting responsible fire prevention. The inspiration for Smokey was a bear cub found in a tree after a New Mexico wildfire. His rescuers named him Hotfoot Teddy.
Smokey the spokesbear
The personification of the campaign arrived on the fire prevention scene wearing his signature campaign hat, the kind worn by soldiers in World War One. Canadian troops were the first to wear the new hats, called Mountie Hats. State Troopers all over wear the same hats, which they call Smokeys, as in Smokey and the Bandit.
All are stiff, flat, wide-brimmed hats with the crown pinched together symmetrically at the four corners. This hat lovers know as the “Montana crease.” The design was practical, they say, as it helped the rain run off.
**This is the place where they can hold out no longer; where juveniles snicker and the little ones giggle.
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If you’re a fan, here’s a 1-minute Youtube video of Kenny Loggins singing House at Pooh Corner live from the Grand Canyon in 1992.
