WinnieTP1

                                    The Story Background of Winnie the Pooh                                     The origins of the name "Winnie"
                                   The teddy bear that Christopher Robin Milne received for his
                                    birthday did not start out with the name of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh
                                    originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in a poem from
                                    When We Were Very Young. And Winnie originally came from a
                                   bear at the London Zoo that Christopher Robin used to play with.
                                    In Winnie-the-Pooh, A. A. Milne wrote that the name, Winnie,
                                    was based on a polar bear. Whether a slip of the pen, or just a
                                    memory lapse, that bear at the zoo was not a polar bear, but an
                                    American black black bear.

                                    Winnie was brought to England in 1914 by an army officer named
                                    Harry Colebourn. Colebourn had been trained at the Ontario
                                    Veterinary College and was attached with the 34th Regiment of
                                    Cavalry. On his way to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade
                                    and to embark to England for the war, his train stopped at
                                    White River, Ontario. There, Lt. Colebourn bought a small female
                                    black bear cub from a hunter who had killed its mother.
                                    Colebourn named the bear Winnie, after his hometown of
                                    Winnipeg. The bear became a mascot for the Brigade and
                                    followed the soldiers throughout their camp on the Salisbury Plain.

                                    When the Brigade was called to action in France, Lt. Colebourn
                                    took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long oan. Colebourn
                                    survived the war and formally presented the London Zoo with
                                    Winnie in December 1919. Winnie became a popular attraction
                                    and lived until 1934.

The bear was Christopher Robin's favorite at the zoo, and he
often spent time inside the cage with it.

                                    The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own
                                    teddy bear Winnie. Winnie is typically a female name, but
                                    Christopher Robin insisted his bear was a boy.

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