Wojtek the war-loving soldier bear, Weelsby Park, Grimsby (3)
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Wojtek the war-loving soldier bear, Weelsby Park, Grimsby (3) by Chris as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Wojtek the war-loving soldier bear, Weelsby Park, Grimsby (3)
Image: © Chris Taken: 28 Jan 2023
The real, living Wojtek the Bear was the mascot of the Polish Carpathian Lancers, who were based at Weelsby at the end of the war, awaiting demobilisation. His carer is the lady in the picture, Christine Bojen, who is the daughter of one of the Lancers, Tadeusz Piotriwski, who was decorated for bravery. The bear was adopted as a cub in Persia in 1942 and became a working animal, who carried things for a living and had his own army identity and rations. His name means “happy in war”! The bear himself never came to Grimsby but was taken in by Edinburgh Zoo at the end of the war, and passed his last years there. See https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/276893/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhUEFfBRHns and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVu3RX2YxPw
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
53.552228
Longitude
-0.064241