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Authors: Robyn Walker
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âher presence helped take their minds off their ongoing soggy circumstances and off the prospect of the conflict to come. Group photographs frequently included Winnie, front and centre, a position of honour.â 2 Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately for Winnie) Winnieâs days a mascot were coming to an end. In early December of 1914, Colebourn was given orders that Winnie needed to be removed from Brigade Headquarters as the unit was preparing for departure to France. A bear cub simply could not be accommodated in a war zone. Colebourn made arrangements to âloanâ Winnie to the London Zoo. The Canadian bear went on to become one of the Zooâs star attractions, and one of her biggest fans was a young boy named Christopher Robin Milne, whose father was a writer. Christopher Robin named his own teddy bear after Winnie and his father wrote several stories about the boy and his bear. At the end of the war Colebourn officially donated Winnie to the London Zoo, and she lived there until her death in 1934.
Another Canadian animal that actually did experience war belonged to Dr. John McCrae, author of the poem âIn Flanderâs Fields.â Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, McCrae was given a horse as a gift. He took the horse to Europe with him, and frequently travelled by horseback to make his medical rounds and to reach the wounded men on the battlefield. The horse, named Bonfire, earned a special place in McCraeâs heart, and McCrae often mentioned Bonfire in his letters home. In one such letter, he wrote, âI have a very deep affection for Bonfire, for we have been through so much together, and some of it bad enough. All the hard spots to which oneâs memory turns the old fellow has shared, though he says so little about it.â 3 One can only imagine the horrors witnessed by both McCrae and Bonfire during McCraeâs time as a field surgeon on the front lines.
John McCrae and Bonfire, 1916.
McCrae would also send letters to his sisterâs children, written by Bonfire.One, written to his nephew Jack Kilgour, October 1, 1916, reads as follows, ââ¦do you ever eat blackberries. My master and I pick them every day on the hedges. I like twenty at a time. My leg is better but I have a lump on my tummy. I went to see my doctor today and he says it is nothing at all. I have another horse staying in my stable now; he is black and about half my size. He does not keep me awake at night. Yours truly, Bonfire.â 4 The letters were always signed with a hand-drawn hoof print. When McCrae died during the final year of the war, Bonfire marched in his funeral procession.
Working animals and mascots have both been involved in heroic acts that have earned them the PDSA Dickin Medal; intended to acknowledge an animalâs gallantry and devotion to duty while with the military or civilian defence, it has been awarded sixty-two times as of December 2008. Its recipients have included horses, pigeons, dogs, and a cat.
Other PDSA Dickin Medal Stories
Pigeons have won more PDSA Dickin Medals than any other animal. Their incredible âhomingâ instinct made them an integral part of military communications. Man- made communication systems, such as telephones and telegraphs, were often difficult to set up in battlefield conditions and were vulnerable to destruction by the enemy, so pigeons were often used to carry messages in tiny canisters attached to their legs. Many fell victim to bad weather, sniper fire, or to hawks and other birds of prey that the enemy would use to attack the pigeon post.
Winkie receivâing her PDSA Dickin Medal from Maria Dickin.
Irma.
Winkie and Mary of Exeter were two pigeons used during the Second World War whose service earned them the PDSA Dickin Medal. Winkie was aboard a badly damaged Royal Air Force plane that was forced to ditch in the North Sea. The plane, riddled with enemy bullets, was returning home from a mission
Another Canadian animal that actually did experience war belonged to Dr. John McCrae, author of the poem âIn Flanderâs Fields.â Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, McCrae was given a horse as a gift. He took the horse to Europe with him, and frequently travelled by horseback to make his medical rounds and to reach the wounded men on the battlefield. The horse, named Bonfire, earned a special place in McCraeâs heart, and McCrae often mentioned Bonfire in his letters home. In one such letter, he wrote, âI have a very deep affection for Bonfire, for we have been through so much together, and some of it bad enough. All the hard spots to which oneâs memory turns the old fellow has shared, though he says so little about it.â 3 One can only imagine the horrors witnessed by both McCrae and Bonfire during McCraeâs time as a field surgeon on the front lines.
John McCrae and Bonfire, 1916.
McCrae would also send letters to his sisterâs children, written by Bonfire.One, written to his nephew Jack Kilgour, October 1, 1916, reads as follows, ââ¦do you ever eat blackberries. My master and I pick them every day on the hedges. I like twenty at a time. My leg is better but I have a lump on my tummy. I went to see my doctor today and he says it is nothing at all. I have another horse staying in my stable now; he is black and about half my size. He does not keep me awake at night. Yours truly, Bonfire.â 4 The letters were always signed with a hand-drawn hoof print. When McCrae died during the final year of the war, Bonfire marched in his funeral procession.
Working animals and mascots have both been involved in heroic acts that have earned them the PDSA Dickin Medal; intended to acknowledge an animalâs gallantry and devotion to duty while with the military or civilian defence, it has been awarded sixty-two times as of December 2008. Its recipients have included horses, pigeons, dogs, and a cat.
Other PDSA Dickin Medal Stories
Pigeons have won more PDSA Dickin Medals than any other animal. Their incredible âhomingâ instinct made them an integral part of military communications. Man- made communication systems, such as telephones and telegraphs, were often difficult to set up in battlefield conditions and were vulnerable to destruction by the enemy, so pigeons were often used to carry messages in tiny canisters attached to their legs. Many fell victim to bad weather, sniper fire, or to hawks and other birds of prey that the enemy would use to attack the pigeon post.
Winkie receivâing her PDSA Dickin Medal from Maria Dickin.
Irma.
Winkie and Mary of Exeter were two pigeons used during the Second World War whose service earned them the PDSA Dickin Medal. Winkie was aboard a badly damaged Royal Air Force plane that was forced to ditch in the North Sea. The plane, riddled with enemy bullets, was returning home from a mission
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