The Bear Necessities

From Aloysius to Winnie-the-Pooh, the attachment between a child and its bear can last a lifetime. Katy Birchall visits the British company bringing our teddies to life

- Katy Birchall

If it could only be like this always— always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe, and Aloysius in a good temper’: thus Sebastian flyte captures a fleeting essence of youth that the protagonist of Brideshead Revisited, Charles Ryder, will think on fondly years later as an officer in the Second World War: warm summer days, fresh strawberries and a teddy bear by your side.

Anyone who has read Evelyn Waugh’s novel or seen the 1981 television adaptation will tell you that the real star of the show is teddy bear Aloysius, Sebastian’s constant companion and his sometimes pompous but ever-righteous conscience: ‘Aloysius won’t speak to me until he sees I am forgiven.’

Sebastian is in good company—former Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman was very fond of his teddy bear, Archibald Ormsby-Gore, and is rumoured to have been holding it when he died. As British naval officer Sir Robert Clark parachuted into northern Italy in 1944, he had his teddy bear, Falla, tucked inside his uniform for comfort.

When it was announced that Aloysius wouldn’t feature in the 2008 film adaptation of Brideshead, there was such public outcry that the producer had to quickly release a statement explaining the bear would make an appearance, albeit with a smaller role.

Our love affair with these toys can be traced back to 1902, when, on a hunting trip in Mississippi, American President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear. A subsequent cartoon of the incident in the Washington Post prompted a New York shop to sell a plush toy labelled Teddy’s Bear. It proved to be a huge success and it wasn’t long before the craze reached Britain, supposedly fuelled by the fact that, at that time, we had our own ‘Teddy’ in Edward VII.