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Connections between AA Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and the hallowed portals of the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincolns Inn Fields seem highly unlikely and yet they are connected. Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956)1 is best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. He was educated at Westminster and Cambridge, where he read Mathematics. After graduation he joined the staff of Punch and there he met and worked with the cartoonist EH Shepard, who was subsequently to illustrate his poems and the Winnie-the-Pooh books. AA Milne served in both world wars and had one son, Christopher Robin, who used to go to London Zoo with his father (Figure 1) to see a bear called Winnie. The boy loved this little bear and renamed his teddy (previously called Edward Bear) after him. The skull of the bear responsible for the name change is in the Hunterian Museum and you just have to walk into the museum, past the reception desk and back left, and there it is, beautifully displayed and labelled. This article tells the story, but let's start with AA Milne's own description from the Introduction to his famous book, Winnie-the-Pooh, first published 14th October 1926.
‘You can’t be in London for a long time without going to the Zoo. There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past every cage until they get to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people go straight to the animal they love the most and stay there. So when Christopher Robin goes to the Zoo, he goes to where the polar bears are, and he whispers something to the third keeper from the left, and doors are unlocked, and we wander through dark passages and up steep stairs, until at last we come to the special cage, and the cage is opened, and out trots something brown and furry, and with a happy cry of ‘Oh, Bear!’ Christopher Robin rushes into its arms. Now this bear's name is Winnie, which shows what a good name for bears it is, but the funny thing is we cannot remember whether Winnie is called after Pooh, or Pooh after Winnie. We did know once, but we have forgotten….“2
Lieutenant, later Captain, Harry Colebourn and an orphaned bear cub3,4,5,6,7
Harry Colebourn was born in Birmingham, England, in 1887 and travelled to Canada in 1905, when he was 18 years old. Settling initially in Toronto, he enrolled at the Ontario Veterinary College in 1908, qualifying in 1911. After a brief visit to England to see his family, he returned to Canada, accepting a veterinary appointment with the Department of Agriculture, Health of Animals Branch, in Winnipeg. He joined the 18th Mounted Rifles and was seconded to the Cavalry the following year. When World War One broke out in August 1914, he was already a trained officer and offered his services to his country. He was given leave of absence from the Department of Agriculture and left Winnipeg by train on 23rd August, bound for Quebec, and now transferred to the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (CAVC). On 24th August the train stopped at White River, Ontario, where he purchased a small, black, female bear cub for $20 from a trapper who had killed her mother. He named the cub, Winnie, after Winnipeg, his home town. Winnie was only about 7 months old when Harry purchased her. His war diaries show that, in October 1914, he and Winnie sailed from Gaspe Bay to Devonport, England, and then immediately travelled to Salisbury Plain. Winnie remained with him at the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade Headquarters (Figures 2 and 3) and became a Mascot to the Canadian Army Veterinary Corps (Cover picture). She became a pet to many of the soldiers and would follow them around like a tame dog in their off-duty hours on Salisbury Plain. There are numerous photos taken of her with the men, some of these pictures becoming a keepsake for them to treasure. She would sleep under Harry's cot in the tent on Salisbury Plain although, as she got bigger, Winnie loved to climb the central pole in the solders' tent and give it a shake. There was concern the tent might collapse and she was subsequently tethered outside!
Harry to France, Winnie to London Zoo
When Harry was to be shipped to France he realized Winnie could not go with him and he made arrangements for her to be kept in London Zoo until he returned. At the zoo she soon became a favourite attraction. People would knock on her door and she would open it and come out. She would allow children to ride on her back and she would eat from their hands. The attendants who cared for her stated she was completely trustworthy. Other bears were never allowed to have such a close relationship with the visiting public.
Christopher Robin Milne (1920–1996)
One of the children visiting London Zoo was Christopher Robin (Figure 4) who came with his father, AA Milne. Christopher added ‘Pooh’ to Winnie's name and renamed his beloved teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh. The name Pooh came from his pet swan. Apparently Christopher Robin had a birthday party at the zoo which included some of his friends and was held in Winnie's den. We know the little bear liked condensed milk but can find no reference to honey, a particular favourite of Pooh's in the book, which caused him some practical and social problems including, topically, his obesity; but you have to read the book to find out more about this!
Christopher Robin possessed one of the most evocative Christian names in Britain and was always associated with the little boy with the golden hair who ‘was saying his prayers’ in his father's poem Vespers. Through his father's books, Christopher Robin became one of the most famous children in the world. But this proved to be almost a curse during his life and he rebelled against it. Sadly, he subsequently broke off all contact with his father. Like his father, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge and, relatively late in his life, in 1974, published a widely read autobiography entitled The Enchanted Places.8 He became the owner of a successful book shop in Dartmouth, The Harbour Bookshop, from 1951 until he retired in 1983.9,10 Sadly, the bookshop closed in 2011.
Harry returns from the war and Winnie stays at the zoo
Harry Colebourn visited Winnie at the zoo whenever he was on leave, recording the event in his diary. Realizing how popular she was with children and adults at the zoo, Harry decided not to take her back to Canada as he had planned, but donated her officially to the zoo on 1st December 1918.
Winnie lived a long and full life at the zoo and continued to delight her visitors even into advanced age. It was not until 1931 that her health began to fail and the zoo decided to retire her from the public eye.11 In her later life she developed cataracts and did not want to take her pills for osteoarthritis no matter how they were disguised, but she generally lived a contented life, helping her keeper to look after her by wrapping her feet up in blankets to help ease her arthritic legs before lying down.11 In the last two years of her life a stroke left her partly paralysed and, as her health continued to deteriorate, the decision was made to euthanize her.7 She died on 12th May 1934, when she was 20 years old, a good age for a bear. Harry Colebourn was kept informed of her progress, including her death. She predeceased him by 13 years.
When Winnie died her skull was donated by the London Zoological Society to Sir James Frank Colyer, who was curator of the Odontological Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons of England at this time. Colyer acquired many skulls from the Zoological Society and studied these as part of his research into the variations and diseases of teeth in animals. Winnie's skull had been held in the museum's stores alongside other bear skulls without full recognition until it was highlighted in a Collections Review (funded by the Arts Council) by Collections Assistant, Emmy Bocaege, as of a specimen that would be of much interest to the public. It has since been put on display in the Hunterian Museum.
Bears' skulls
Bears belong to the Order of Carnivora, suborder Caniformia and family Ursidae. The bear family contains eight living species.12 In addition to Winnie, a North American black bear (Ursus americanus), there are Brown bears (Ursus arctos), Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus), Andean (Spectacled) bears (Tremarctos ornatus), Panda bears (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Sloth bears (Melurus (Ursus) ursinus) and Sun bears (Ursus malayanus), the smallest of bears.
In spite of its name, the American black bear can vary considerably in colour and its coat can vary from white and blond to brown or jet black. Typically, adults are approximately 3 feet tall at the shoulder. However, size may vary considerably and, from the figures of Harry Colebourn and Winnie, we estimate that she was shorter than this (it is known that Harry Colebourn was 5 feet 8 inches tall6). However, American black bears do not reach their full growth until they are about 5 years old, and thus she would not have been fully grown in the figures. All bears, including the American black bears, are sexually dimorphic (males larger than females).
In the wild, American black bears are omnivorous, eating a variety of food items, such as roots, fruits and berries, meat, fish, insects, larvae, grass and succulent plants. They are also able to kill and consume deer. Bears quickly become habituated to human environments. In this context, they may be attracted to beehives and honey.
Like all carnivores, bears have prominent tusk-like canines but, unlike most other members of the Carnivora, they lack the typical, blade-like, carnassial teeth (maxillary fourth premolar and mandibular first molar). This relates to the fact that they are omnivorous, the exception being the polar bear, which is truly carnivorous and has re-evolved carnassial teeth.
The American black bear has the typical ursid dental formula of I 3/3, C 1/1, P 4/4, M 2/3 for the permanent dentition. However, the number of premolars is variable and, in the American black bear, is usually three13 (Figures 5 and 6). The first incisors are the smallest and the third is the largest. The canines are extremely large, robust and recurved and, in the upper jaw, are separated from the third incisors by a gap or diastema, allowing accommodation of the mandibular canines when the jaws close. The three premolars are spaced, the first being the smallest. The molars are broad with rounded cusps, the second being the larger.
Winnie's jaws
There is a complete absence of any teeth or retained roots in the skull, as evidenced by visual and radiological examination (Figures 7 and 8). The margins of alveolar bone in the right maxillary molar region show increased radio-opacity, whereas the lining of the mandibular canal of the normal animal is radio-opaque; this is absent from the lower jaw of Winnie.
Although teeth may be occasionally missing from the skulls of carnivores, the complete absence of teeth from the skull of Winnie seems remarkable and we are unaware of a similar condition being reported in the literature. The absence of teeth from Winnie's skull was recorded in her post-mortem report, but without any further information.14 An article in the Daily Express newspaper in August 1931 refers to Winnie as having lost all her teeth.7 Therefore it must be assumed that she originally had a full permanent dentition, but that all the teeth were lost during her long period in captivity.
That bears in captivity suffer from toothwear and periodontal disease is apparent from specimens of captive bears in the collections at the RCS (Figure 9), although the occurrence of widespread periodontal disease or dental caries has not been documented in the literature.15 Of five American black bear skulls in the RCS collection, four show localized severe bone loss characteristic of periodontal disease, but none shows dental caries lesions. We do not know whether Winnie lost teeth through periodontal disease or caries, but it seems logical to suggest, that if it was caries, she would have suffered pain and would have needed extractions and there is no record of this in the literature or the London Zoo archives. With periodontal disease the teeth could have exfoliated painlessly. Perhaps Winnie's edentate condition is related to the food she was given during her prolonged captivity. Colyer was one of the first people to link the diet of animals in captivity with poor oral health.16 Interestingly, Colyer stated that ‘in the wild state the bear subsists on a vegetable diet, but in captivity it often obtains a plentiful supply of carbohydrate in the form of buns, and in a few favoured cases treacle'!17 Unfortunately, there are no surviving records of Winnie's daily diet but, as a favourite with zoo visitors, she seems to have been given some rather unusual food types for her species; there are some references to Winnie enjoying a drink of condensed milk laced with golden treacle.11 Perhaps she even enjoyed honey; you will remember honey was Pooh's favourite food in the books of AA Milne, but it seems unlikely that this formed a major part of her diet at London Zoo.
Where are they now?
All but one of the characters in this story is deceased:
Further reading
This small paper was produced for your soul, not your dental mind. What might you do now? We recommend you reach into the bookshelf for your copy of Winnie-the-Pooh to remind yourself of a wonderful children's book, written with gentle humour and perspicacious glances at human nature. We think the book is best read aloud, and if possible we suggest you sit a small child next to you to divert attention from the fact that you are apparently speaking to yourself in a rather strange way. Perhaps it is also better to keep the fact that she had no teeth to yourself.
Having done this, take yourself, and if possible the same child, to the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons. It is probably years since you visited and it is a wondrous place, for children and adults.