The bear with the story ……. but just what story?

I am looking at a teddy bear, which is not a particularly remarkable thing to do.

Over the years plenty of them have been a feature of our house.  Each started as a toy, became a comfort thing to take to bed and on one memorable occasion one was the victim of a dastardly exercise in devising a way of repeatedly launching it from an upstairs bedroom window.

Needless to say, all became much battered and finally had to be thrown away. 

But this one has survived over a century and while it is does now look a tad tired it is still in reasonable condition.

And I think that may have something to do with the one metal insignia and medal, which are pinned to its chest.

They belonged to a W.J Owen

The bear was recently acquired by my old “posty” friend David Harrop who has done an extensive search to find the named soldier, but with no success.

The medal which accompanies the insignia is the 1914-15 Star which places W.J. Owen as a soldier of the Great War, but so far there have been no leads to that conflict.

So, a mystery, compounded by another, which is simply how is the bear connected to the insignia and medal?

The obvious conclusion is that both belonged to Mr. Owen.  

Or are we dealing with a bear which some how acquired the badges at a later date, perhaps randomly attached with no link between the two?

I don’t know, and while I shy away from historical speculation I wonder if the story involves a relative of W.J. Owen who choose to remember the soldier by adding his insignia to the family toy.

It might be a son or daughter to whom the teddy bear took pride of place with those insignia.

Either way David tells me it will take pride of place in his museum of memorabilia from both world wars which is located in the Remembrance Lodge in Southern Cemetery.

The postscript.  And then after the story was posted I came across a reference to a W.J. Owen, 817 Royal Artillery, who qualified for the 1914-15 Star, because he arrived in France on Novenber 22nd 1915 with the rank of "Gunner".  

This fits with the teddy's medal but conflicts with the insignia for the Honourable Artillery Company.

Now I know there will be military experts out there who may be be able reconcile the confusion.

Of course we may just be dealing with two separate items which are unconnected other than they made a teddy bear quite happy.

We shall see.

Further suggestions most welcome

Picture; the teddy bear and insignia, date unknown from the collection of David Harrop