Dr. Avnish Jolly, Winnipeg, Canada November 7, 2014: “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh We are celebrating 100th Birthday of Winnie and above lines we say these line to our beloved ones very often. During our childhood we read the famous Comic Winnie The Pooh and familiar with his jar of honey, fuzzy yellow fur and tiny red shirt, but the real Winnie the Pooh was a different type of bear altogether.
We know name Winnie but don’t knows the origin of the world’s most-loved children’s book characters, Winnie the Pooh by author A.A. Milne
According to the website of White River Heritage Museum in 1914 Harry Coulbourn, Canadian soldier, headed overseas to serve in the World War – I, bought Winnie for $20 in White River, Ont. on Aug. 24, 1914, because the cub had been orphaned when a hunter killed her mother. A trapper had taken her into City. Colebourn was passing through the area on his way to Val Cartier Quebec, and then on to England from White River. He named her after his home town, Winnipeg.
Colebourn brought Winnie to England where she became his regiment’s much-loved pet. He trained her, and she became the charm of his regiment. But when Colebourn was deployed to France, he was worried Winnie wouldn’t be safe on the front line, than, Colebourn gave Winnie to the London Zoo, where she became a popular attraction.
Eventually, Winnie drew the attention of author A.A. Milne and his son, Christopher Robin Milne. In those days, zoos were more interactive and people could pet and play with Winnie, who had become a disciplined bear. They would let children into the cage to play with her and Christopher Robin had developed a weakness for Winnie and he named his stuffed bear after her. After realising attachment Christopher Robin with Winnie so much, his father began writing children’s stories about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.
A.A. Milne went on to publish Winnie the Pooh in 1926 and The House at Pooh Corner in 1928. Disney later made several animated adaptations of Milne’s stories; including the most popular feature-length film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1977. The fictional Winnie became so popular that his celebrity has outshone the fame of the real Winnie.
Coulbourn returned to Winnipeg after the war in 1920 and worked as a veterinarian. He died on Sept. 24, 1947. Winnie the bear lived the rest of her days at the London Zoo. She was 20 when she died there but remains with us for ever.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh