Everything about Harry Colebourn totally explained
Harry Colebourn (
April 12,
1887 –
September 24 1947) was born in
Birmingham,
England and immigrated to
Canada in 1905. He attended the
Ontario Veterinary College, receiving his degree in
Veterinary surgery, and moved west to
Winnipeg,
Manitoba.
Winnie and the Great War
As he was heading across Canada by train to the training camp at
Valcartier in
Quebec where he was to embark for overseas duty in the
First World War, Harry came across a hunter in
White River, Ontario who had a female
black bear cub for sale. The hunter had killed the cub's mother and sold the cub to Colebourn for $20. Colebourn named her "Winnie," after his adopted hometown, and took her across the
Atlantic with him to
Salisbury Plain, where she became an unofficial
mascot of
The Fort Garry Horse, a Militia cavalry regiment. Colebourn himself was a member of the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps, attached to the Fort Garries as a
veterinarian. While Colebourn served three years in
France, attaining the rank of major, he kept Winnie at the
London Zoo to whom he eventually donated her.
It was at the London Zoo that
A.A. Milne and his son
Christopher Robin Milne encountered Winnie.
Christopher was so taken with her that he named his
teddy bear after her, which became the inspiration for Milne's fictional character in the books
Winnie-the-Pooh 1926 and
The House at Pooh Corner 1928. Milne also included several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh in the children’s poetry books
When We Were Very Young and
Now We Are Six. All four volumes were
illustrated by
E. H. Shepard. Winnie would stay at the zoo until she died in 1934.
After the war
After the war, Colebourn did post-graduate work at the
Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in
London, England and then, in 1920, he returned to Canada and started a private practice in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He retired in 1945 and died in September,
1947.
He is buried in Brookside Cemetery in Winnipeg. There is presently a statue of Colebourn and Winnie in Winnipeg's
Assiniboine Park Zoo. and the relationship between Colebourn and Winnie is recounted in the
CBC Television movie
A Bear Named Winnie.
Books and movies
- The Real Winnie: A One-of-a-Kind Bear Val Shushkewich.
Toronto, ON: Natural Heritage Books, 2003. ISBN 1-896219-89-6.
- A Bear Named Winnie Movie
Further Information
Get more info on 'Harry Colebourn'.
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