Winnie the Bear

Book Review

Winnie the Bear

by M. A. Appleby, illustrated by P. R. Hayes, Dominion Street Publishing, Winnipeg, 2011

Review by Rita Button

Winnie the Bear is a biography of a bear. Harry Colebourn, a veterinarian on his way to England as a part of the 2^nd Winnipeg Infantry Brigade, bought the bear cub from a trapper at the train station in White River, Ontario. The trapper had shot the bear’s mother, and of the two offspring, one had survived. It is this bear that Harry Colebourn bought for $20.00 and named Winnie after his newly adopted city, Winnipeg.

This is also the bear that became Winnie-the-Pooh and her story is the subject of Appleby’s book.

Appleby’s father, Bill, piqued his daughter’s interest in the bear when he told her that his long-time friend, Fred Colbourne, Harry’s son, had a connection to Winnie-the–Pooh, the children’s classic. Initially, Appleby didn’t believe her dad, the family practical joker, but after she did some investigating on her own, she realized that her father’s information seemed accurate. Thus, she began to research the famous bear and her connections to the A. A. Milne classic.

It’s a wonderful story in itself; Harry’s ability to connect with living beings includes a bear who becomes a mascot for the 2^nd Canadian Infantry Brigade is the beginning. The bear accompanies the Brigade to England and becomes well-loved by the soldiers. Winnie continues to be with the soldiers while they train on the Salisbury Plain, but when the Brigade is about to be shipped out to France, Harry is told that he must find alternative accommodation for Winnie. Harry donates Winnie to The London Zoo where she becomes the main attraction for many years since she is tame, prefers human company to bear company and is totally gentle with children who are safe as they play with Winnie in her accommodation at the zoo.

When the war is over, and Harry wants to return to Winnipeg, he sees that he must leave the bear at the London Zoo since that is where she feels at home; the zoo keepers trust and appreciate her while the children enjoy playing with her and listening to her hum after they have fed her condensed milk.

The biography explores the possibility that Winnie is, in fact, the model for Winnie-the-Pooh. Appleby makes a great case, showing her thought processes and her research as she develops the arguments and the proof for her belief that Winnie the Bear is Winnie the Pooh!

I enjoyed the way Appleby moves between present and past. In telling Harry’s story, she uses excerpts from his diary as well excerpts from newspapers, both Canadian and British. Conversations she had with relatives and friends of Harry are recorded meticulously.

And then suddenly, Appleby takes the reader into the present. She is in her car driving back from the archives on Memorial Boulevard in Winnipeg and describes her thought processes as she sits in front of her computer in the old rambling house in Winnipeg’s older area near the river.

Immersing the reader into Harry’s world, and then hers creates a reality, a truth to both worlds.

The accounts of A. A. Milne taking his son Christopher Robin to the zoo and watching Winnie and Christopher interact show the similarities very clearly. But it’s not until the Epilogue that the final piece of proof is presented.

The story is compelling and real. However, the illustrations create instant appeal for the book. P. R. Hayes has copied photographs using either paint or pencil, and the result is magnificent. The beauty adds pleasure and reality to the biography of the bear who, according to one zoo keeper at the London Zoo, “is quite the tamest and best behaved bear we have ever had at the zoo.”

However, the last word is about kindness: “An act of kindness…was a catalyst for many remarkable stories” is Appleby’s final comment on Winnie’s life.

I like that remarkable stories can come from acts of kindness.

Read the book; you will too!